The eugenic marriage : a personal guide to the new science of better living and better babies

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VOLUME III

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So strong is becoming the ambitions of the mothers of to-day
to give the world children that will be an honor to-morrow, that
this piece of marble statuary was erected by the Infant Welfare
Society of Chicago to express the ideal of the most wonderful,
thing that can come to any woman — motherhood.

The

Eugenic Marriage

A Personal Guide to the
New Science of Better
Living and Better Babies

By W. GRANT HAGUE, M. D,

College of Physicians and Surgeons ( Columbia
University) , New York ; Member of County Medical
Society , and of the American Medical Association

In Four Volumes

VOLUME III

New York

THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS COMPANY

1914

Copyright, 1913, by
W. Grant Hague

Copyright, 1914, by
W. Grant Hague

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXIV

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

PAGE

The best age at which to marry — Incompatibility of tempera-
ment— A happy marriage need not be a successful one —

The evils of early marriage — The wedding night, its
medical aspect — The honeymoon — When marital relations
are painful — Times when marital relations should be
suspended — The first weeks and months of wifehood —

The formative period — A true marriage — A wife’s true
position in the household — Only 5% of happy marriages
— Period of adaptation — Differences of opinion — Differ-
ences of principle — The attainment of success — Arguing
trifles — You must know what you want — The right kind
of wife — Contributing to her husband’s efficiency — What
are the requisites of efficiency — Good health — Thoroughly
cooked meals — Rest at night — Having a system — Enough
exercise — Freedom from worry — Do your part — The first
quarrel — Fault finding — The husband’s efficiency depends
upon the wife — Work must be interesting — The wife’s
part 331

Advice to Young Wives
CHAPTER XXV

HOW TO ACHIEVE

What the young wife owes to herself — Why was I born —
What are the personal qualities necessary to success —
What are the personal qualities necessary to happiness —
Self-control— What is a thought — The evil habit of hasty
judgment — The bad thought habit — Training the mind —

“Go about it in the right way” — Be sure your husband’s
friends are your friends — Be a good fellow — Two kinds
of people in the world — Everything depends upon what
we do with our mind — The most popular woman — The
gift of flattery— Choosing your friends— True friendship
expects and demands nothing — True friendship is neces-
sary— “By your friends shall ye be known”— Making re-
solves—The formula of success— When fortune knocks . 357

CHAPTER XXVI

SPARE MOMENTS

The study habit— The germ of self-culture— Millions of tiny
cells in our brain — The economic value of the study habit

iii

iv THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

—Two ways of gaining knowledge— Happiness in the
company of those striving for higher ideals — A young
wife’s incentive to self-culture— The difference between
moral and mental disloyalty— The study habit creates its
own interest — Nosophobia, or the dread of disease —
'‘Keep still and be well”

The Home

CHAPTER XXVII

DOMESTIC QUALITIES

A good housekeeper and homemaker — What constitutes a
good housekeeper — Preparation and selection of meals —
Washing dishes — Pots and pans — Dusting and cleaning
—Work cheerfully and be thorough— Don’t be a dust
chaser — Don’t get the anti-sunshine habit — Air your
rooms — The ideal home — The medical essentials of a
good meal — What makes the home — Working for some-
thing— The average housewife’s existence is slavery —
What shall we work for— Making ends meet— Rest and
recreation Try a nap — Get enough sleep at night — Go
out of doors— Take a vacation now and then — Life in-
surance— Owning a home — The cheerful wife and mother
—The indifferent wife and mother— Husband and wife .

CHAPTER XXVIII

HOW WE CATCH DISEASE

How we catch disease — How germs enter the lungs — How
germs work in the body — The function of the white blood
c.e^ How an abscess is formed — The evil habit of spit-
ting in public places — Sunlight and germs — Why it is
necessary to open windows — Facts about tuberculosis —
The tendency to disease — The best treatment for tuber-
culosis— Consumption is a preventable and a curable
disease — When delay is dangerous — What to eat and
wear in hut weather — Scientific dressing — Drink plenty
of water — What to drink when traveling ....

Diseases of Women

CHAPTER XXIX

DISEASES OF WOMEN

Diseases of women— The beginning of female disease — Ail-
ing women are inefficient — as homemakers, as wife, as
mother — Few ailing women become pregnant — The chief
cause of female disease — The existence of the average

TABLE OF CONTENTS

v

PAGE

mother — Female diseases are avoidable — The story of
the wife — Women who don’t want children — Abuse of
the procreative function — What the woman with female
disease should do — Cancer in women — Cancer of the
breast — Cancer of the womb — What every woman should
know about cancer — Change of life — The menopause —

The climacteric — The average age at which the change of
life occurs — Symptoms of the change of life — Impor-
tance of a correct diagnosis — Danger signals of the
change of life — Conduct during the change of life . . 433

The Patent Medicine Evil
CHAPTER XXX

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

What mothers should know about the patent medicine evil —
Tonics — Used by temperance people because it could
“stimulate” — Stomach Bitters — Blood Bitters — Sarsa-
parilla— Celery Compound — Malt Whisky — Headache
remedies — Pain Powders — Anti-headache — Headache
Powders — Soothing syrups — Baby Friend — Catarrh pow-
ders— Kidney Pills — Expectorant — Cough syrup — Lithia
Water — Health, wealth and happiness for a dollar a bot-
tle— New Discovery for Consumption — Consumption
Cure — Cancer cures — Pills for Pale People — Elixir of
Life 451

CHAPTER XXXI

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL ,( continued )

The Consumption Cure — Personals to Consumptives

— Nature’s Creation — Female weakness cures — Various
compounds and malt whiskies 467

CHAPTER XXXII

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL ( continued )

How patent medicine firms and quacks dispose of the con-
fidential letters sent to them. Patent medicine concerns
and letter brokers — The patent medicine conspiracy
against the freedom of the press — How the patent
medicine trust crushes honest effort 481

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL ,( continued, )

The patent medicine evil and the duty of the mothers of the
race — “Blood money” — The people must be the reformers
— Mothers’ resolutions 489

-

CHAPTER XXIV

“The achievement of an object is dependent upon our de-
termination. Effort is a matter of will. Failure is a product
of misdirected determination.”

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

The Best Age at Which to Marry— Incompatibility of Tem-
perament— A Happy Marriage Need Not Be a Successful
One— The Evils of Early Marriage— The Wedding Night,
its Medical Aspect — The Honeymoon— When Marital
Relations are Painful — Times when Marital Relations
Should be Suspended— The First Weeks and Months of
Wifehood— The Formative Period— A True Marriage— A
Wife’s True Position in the Household — Only Five Per
Cent, of Happy Marriages— Period of Adaptation— Differ-
ences of Opinion— Differences of Principle — The Attain-
ment of Success — Arguing Trifles — You Must Know
What You Want— The Right Kind of Wife— Contribu-
ting to Her Husband’s Efficiency— What Are the Requi-
sites of Efficiency — Good Health— Thoroughly Cooked
Meals— Rest at Night — Having a System — Enough Exer-
cise-Freedom from Worry — Do Your Part — The First
Quarrel— Fault Finding— The Husband’s Efficiency De-
pends Upon the Wife— Work Must be Interesting— The
Wife’s Part.

THE BEST AGE AT WHICH TO MARRY

In order to determine the best age at which to marry,
we must be guided by certain fixed standards. We must
find out from statistics the average age of the parents of
the best babies. We must determine and analyse the
qualifications of what constitutes the “best” babies, ac-
cording to the eugenic ideal. We should give heed to
the fixity of temperamental characteristics in order to
determine their adaptability to conditions that prevail at
certain ages. We should select an age in advance of the
period at which science has determined individuals to
have outlived any hereditary tendencies.

We have abundant proof that the best babies are born
of parents between the twenty-third and the twenty-sixth

S31

332

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

y,ear|- „ We know also that the age which responds, with
the fullest degree of plasticity, to temperamental charac-
tenst.cs, is m the early twenties. We know, likewise,
that inherited tendencies may be said to have been out-
lived at or about the twenty-second year. The ideal
marrying age, therefore, is, for both male and female
approximately the twenty-third year.

Tne physical, mental and moral development of both
men and women, at this period, evidence a high degree of
adaptability, and are responsive to the institution of mar-
nage. Their hereditary traits, if any previously existed
assume a dormant form at this age. They have cultivated
the temperamental qualities which thev will retain with
tew modifications, throughout life. On the other hand,
their dispositions are responsive to reason, and are capa-
ole of readjustment. Their temperamental characteristics
are plastic, and under favorable conditions it is possible
tor both to evidence a degree of sympathy and toleration
that bespeaks future harmony and success. No marriage
can result in mutual happiness and success if one of the
participants is temperamentally incapable of changing his
or her convictions. . One of the fundamental essentials to
peace in the home is the quality of adaptation to circum-
stances, and no other virtue will be called into existence
oftener than this quality. At this age, a man is eager
to contribute to^ the contentment and happiness of his
partner, even if it is necessary to sacrifice his own whims
and opinions, and a woman, at this period, is tempera-
mentally so constituted that she will respond to the same
impulses.

Incompatibility of temperament simply implies that
two individuals are so constituted that they cannot, or
will not, adapt themselves to the temperamental charac-
teristics of each other. This condition is one of the most
prolific causes of unfortunate marriages. Age has a
great deal to do with this situation. Men over thirty
have unconsciously developed habits of judgment and are
too set in their opinions and ways to accomodate them-
selves easily, or without friction, to the temperamental
differences that will undoubtedly exist in their wives.
The spirit of adaptation, which is a characteristic of

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD 333

younger years, is lacking, and a mental readjustment is
scarcely to be expected. We, therefore, frequently ob-
serve in the marriage relations of certain individuals a
spirit of friendship existing rather than that of com-
panionship which should be the quality that binds them
together. Statistics prove that “affinities” creep into the
lives of those who marry early, or in those who marry
after thirty. This form of domestic infelicity may be
rightly regarded as a product of “incompatibility ot

temperament.”

A happy marriage need not be a successiul one. borne
couples attain happiness through sorrow, grief, and
failure. The so-called happy marriage, like happiness it-
self, is only a myth, made up of anticipation and memory.
You have only to look into the calm and wrinkled faces
of old women, and talk to them to discover that the out-
come of unselfishness and abnegation forms the nearest
approach to happiness in married life or out of it. It is
the bearing of the burdens of life that constitutes its
happiness.

The Evils of Early Marriage. — No woman has the
vitality to stand the strain of maternity before the twenty-
third year. If a girl marries at eighteen years of age
she gives the world children totally unfit to struggle
with its problems. At about twenty-two years she may
give one child of value to the world, but all others follow-
ing will be increasingly unfit In early marriages children
are apt to come too frequently, and this is one cause of
infant mortality. Statistics show that children born with
an interval between them of only one year have a mortali-
ty of one hundred per cent, higher rating than those born
with an interval of two years. And if these children are
the progeny of very young mothers the percentage is
even greater. The percentage of children who are mal-
formed and idiotic is greater among those born of too
young parents. It has been shown that the child can
only inherit what the parents possess. If the parents are
not of an age when all the powers are at their highest,
the child is robbed of just this amount of growth and
force lacking; no amount of education or training can
supply this loss.

334

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

There is another feature of early marriages that should
receive serious consideration. A girl of eighteen or
twenty has not reached that period of growth where
cei tain inherited tendencies will show. If she has in-
herited a predisposition to consumption she may out-
grow this period provided she is permitted to reach her
full growth without subjecting her constitution to any
strenuous physical or mental strain. If, however, this
girl marries and becomes a mother, the incident effect
upon her health will most likely weaken her to the extent
of bringing to the surface the inherited tendency. Many
mothers succumb to just such conditions, where had they
remained single until a later period they could have as-
sumed the responsibility of maternity without any evil
consequences.

The idea that by an early marriage a woman can train
and change the inborn characteristics of her husband is
a mistake. Few women can reform a husband after mar-
riage. If she cannot reform him before marriage she
will never do it afterward. These inborn traits will have
their way despite anything she may be able to do to
change them only the man himself can control and
govein them. During the period of this temperamental
transformation the function of parenthood should not be
exercised. Only when a man’s character is fully matured

should he be permitted to transfer it to another genera-
tion.

The idea has been advanced that early marriages will
tend to preserve youth from sowing wild oats. The
woman who is the victim of this delusion will reap a
harvest of discontent and misery. Any man who needs
the sacrifice of a woman to cultivate the art of self-control
is not a nt citizen, far less a fit husband or father. A
man who is willing to bring children into the world
before he is a self-governed animal does not understand
the first principles of race-regeneration, and it is the duty
of parents to educate their sons and daughters in this
fundamental idea. To be an efficient parent one must be
mentally, morally, and physically developed.

The Wedding Night;— Its Medical Aspect.— The
fundamental object of true marriage is the propagation

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

335

of the species. Woman plays the more important part
in the consummation of this duty inasmuch as she is the
origin and depository of the future being. It is, there-
fore, most important that she should not be wholly
ignorant of the nature and responsibilities of her position.
Suffering, disease and death may result as a consequence
of ignorance of these matters. It is the duty and the
privilege of medical science to state, in language which all
may understand, the facts regarding this interesting hu-
man event.

It would seem as though suffering to some degree,
characterized each epoch in a woman’s life; menstrua-
tion, marriage and maternity. Much may be done, how-
ever, to lessen the pain necessary to the consummation of
marriage. Not infrequently difficulty is experienced in
this respect and great care, forbearance and gentleness
must be exercised or unnecessary pain and injury may
result. It is quite possible to cause serious injury by un-
restrained impetuosity and this must be guarded against.
It is sometimes absolutely necessary to consult a physi-
cian, especially in cases where greater resistance is ex-
perienced than is to be expected. These are rare cases.

The first conjugal approaches are usually accompanied
by a slight bleeding. They may not be so, however, and
the absence of blood has no significance or meaning.
The most suitable time to select for marriage is midway
between the monthly periods. This is a season of sterility,
and as the first nuptial relations may be followed by indis-
position, pain and nervous irritability, it would be well to
select a time when these ailments shall have an opportuni-
ty to subside before the appearance of the disturbances
incident to pregnancy.

The Honeymoon. — From a medical standpoint there
is great need of a radical change in the way in which this
nuptial period is spent. For many weeks previous to
marriage the bride’s existence is a long drawn-out period
of nervous tension. Instead of enjoying mental and
physical rest and repose, every moment of the time is
crowded with exacting incidents, which, ordinarily, would
wreck the nervous system of a robust individual. If this
exciting preparatory experience ended in a period of rest

336

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

and recuperation, it might not prove physically disastrous,
instead of which, however, we know' that the bride is
subjected to a series of physiological tragedies which
few weather with impunity. At no time of her life is she
more in need of being surrounded with all the comforts
of home and the intelligent direction of sympathizing
friends who understand and appreciate the crisis through
which she is passing. Custom, however, dictates that
she shall be hurried from place to place at a time when
the bodily quiet and the mental calmness and serenity so
desirable to her should be the only object in view.

Marital relations still continue painful and will be so
for a few weeks. Too frequent indulgence at this period
is a fruitful source of various inflammatory diseases, and
often occasions temporary sterility and ill health. In
many cases constitutional disturbances and nervous dis-
orders have their beginning at this time and these un-
fortunate conditions are directly caused by the discom-
forts incident to the silliness of the social custom which
deprives the woman of the rest and quiet necessary.

The awakening of the sexual function is a tremendous-
ly important medical incident in the life of any woman.
The simplest mind may adequately understand why such
an experience should be consummated in a cheerful en-
vironment of domestic comfort and peace. To drag a
girl around sight-seeing, when her nerves are on edge
and supersensitive ; when she is physically unfit, weary
and not at all interested; when her brain is apprehensively
busy with secret conjectures in which her husband even
may not participate, is a species of torture which the
average bride submits to with the best grace possible
Decause social custom dictates the stupid programme.

Mothers should approach this subject with tact and
diplomacy, but they should, nevertheless, approach it with
firm intentions to persuade their daughters to consider
the situation from a common sense standpoint. The
custom of the honeymoon survives becauses young brides
do not appreciate the facts involved. It is the mother’s
duty to acquaint them with the truth, and no sensible
mother will plan, or agree to a honeymoon that involves
continuous discomfort and possible serious consequences

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

337

to the health of her daughter at the beginning of what
should be the happiest period of her life.

When Marital Relations Are Painful.— Nature did
not intend that the act by which the earth is to be re-
plenished should be painful. If therefore, pain . is a
constant characteristic of this function, it is an evidence
that disease exists and it should be given attention at
the earliest possible moment. A displaced, congested
womb is most frequently the cause. Such displacements
most likely are a result of imprudence in dress, constipa-
tion and general negligence on the part of the victim. To
delay or postpone assistance in such cases is dangerous,
while on the other hand, relief is prompt and as a rule
satisfactory if taken in time.

Times When Marital Relations Should be Suspend-
ed.— There are times when such relations are eminently
improper. There are certain legitimate causes for denial
by the wife.

Intoxication in the husband is a good reason for re-
fusal. Idiots and epileptics have been produced as a
result of one parent being intoxicated when fecundation
took place. Many cases are on record whose history is
well authenticated where the mental faculties of the off-
spring have been totally destroyed.

Convalescene from a severe sickness is a just cause for
sexual abstinence. The existence of any local or con-
stitutional disease which would be aggravated by marital
relationship is also a just cause of refusal. The ex-
istence of a contagious disease renders a refusal valid.
Sexual intercourse should never be permitted during the
menses. Pregnancy is unquestionably a just cause for
refraining from all marriage duties.

The First Weeks and Months of Wifehood. — The
daughter is established in her own home : she is now the
young wife, the prospective mother. What can we say
that will be helpful at this period — those wonderful first
weeks and months of wifehood? Her guiding star will
unquestionably be the unconscious lessons she has ab-
sorbed from the tactful talks with mother. She will un-
wittingly pattern her conduct, to a large extent, after
her, and follow the routine mother adopted in the old

338

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

home. But there is a new factor to be considered. Her
life, present and future, her possibilities, her very hap-
piness^ is dependent upon the husband. The old saying-,
that, “you must live with a man to really know him,’’
she will find to be all too true. The story of her future
life might be safely told if we could know how she will
meet the new vicissitudes. She has known her husband
only as_a sweetheart, she has clothed him with virtues
that exist only in her imagination, will he measure uo
to her expectations ? She is watchful and tactful,— the
little mother-talks she remembers. She did not believe
when mother told her, that he had qualities which she
would only find out after marriage, but she knows now.
She is learning that household duties are exacting and
fretful , that, though married, life still has a few thorns.
She finds out also that the long day, when husband is at
business, affords many opportunities for reflection and
serious thought. These moments of seeming leisure are
the moments of destiny. They are the introspective
moments, when she weighs and measures out for herself
sympathy, if she is not made of the right stuff, or she
makes strong resolutions, and prepares herself mentally
to win out in the new life. They are the moments when
her subconscious intelligence is trying to express itself
in the spirit of truth and honesty, when she weighs and
measures and analyses the exigencies of the new environ-
ment. Her destiny depends upon the inspiration that is
impressed upon her brain as a result of these self-com-
munings.

Most of us would not follow exactly the path we trod
had we the opportunity to live our lives over again. The
young wife has the chance to “do it over again.” She
has the opportunity of a new beginning. She should
regard this opportunity as the most precious gift she will
ever obtain. Many would give untold wealth for her
chance. Happiness and riches lie at her feet. All the
experiences that make life worth living are within her
grasp. It all depends upon herself. An enthusiast is
apt to be insistent. If his cause is just we gain by his
insistency and determination. We are enthusiasts on this
subject, we want you to believe in our disinterested sin-

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

339

cerity. We believe, — in fact we know, that the first few
months after marriage is the critical period in every
woman’s life so far as the attainment of happiness and
success is concerned. No physician can practice medicine
for years and fail to have this truth impressed upon him
again and again.

Every intelligent person knows that most young girls
enter into the marriage relationship without a real under-
standing of its true meaning, or even a serious thought
regarding its duties or its responsibilities. Maternity is
thrust upon these physically and mentally immature
young wives, and they assume the principal role in a re-
lationship that is onerous and exacting. We know that
the duties of wife and mother require an intelligence
which is rendered efficient only by experience. We know
that young wives acquire habits which undermine their
health and their morals unwittingly. And we also know
that the product of this diversified inefficiency is what
constitutes the decadence and the degeneracy of the
human race. Is it any wonder that mistakes occur, that
heartaches abound, and that homes are degraded?

What is the remedy? Education! Systematized in-
struction; an efficient and everlasting propaganda of
education carried into the homes of the thousands of
young wives and mothers who are willing, but who do not
know how to play their part creditably and efficiently.

The Formative Period. — The period prior to marriage
is the formative period, the character building years.
Matrimony is to be the test of how we have built our
castle. The success of the matrimonial venture — for
every marriage is an experiment — depends absolutely
upon the result of the first year. We would, therefore,
seriously, and earnestly, request the young wife to think
deeply upon this problem and not to ignore the fact that
the success of the venture is absolutely dependent upon
her efforts to a very large degree. Some may assert that
the husband is the essential euation, so far as happiness
and success is concerned in the matrimonial venture.
W e do not think so. A home is what the woman makes
it. A man may not be an ideal husband, or even a good
father, though his home, to his children, may be heaven

340

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

itself it the wife is a born mother and a good woman.
On the other hand a man may be patient, hard working-,
self-sacrificing, good father, but he cannot make a happy

home, for his children, if his wife is not the right kind of
a woman.

A true marriage implies love and confidence, and in
the vast majority of marriages these qualities can be re-
garded as tangible, and may be used as any other business
equity is used, for a certain time. The length of time
depends upon the use to which this asset is put during
the early months of marriage. It is the utilization of
this time, how best to employ it, that concerns us here.

A word as to a wife’s true position in the household
may be opportune. There is no question but that her
status has changed in the last generation. Whether this
change is for the better is a matter of opinion. It is too
large and too intricate a problem to be fully discussed in
a book of this character. Any opinion on such a sub-
ject must of necessity, in our judgment, be a warped one.
There are few, very few, absolutely happy and congenial
homes. It has been estimated that only five per cent,
of all marriages are successful. If five per cent, make a
success of marriage why could not the other ninety-five ?
The reasons are not fundamental or serious — they are
trivial as a rule. It is making the right beginning that
counts. If this is the secret, and every married person
of experience will testify to this truth, the young wife
should give the matter her serious consideration. In
the life history of every couple there is a period of
adaptation, which is sooner or later passed through at
the expense of one or the other, or both, resigning them-
selves to an acceptance of the stronger, or positive, ele-
ments in the other’s disposition.

Differences of Opinion. — If a woman discovers, for
example, that her husband has very decided views upon
certain matters, and these views do not in any way con-
flict with the law, moral or otherwise, and the adoption
of them does not necessitate the denial of a principle,
it would be far better for her to acquiesce in these views,
rather than to obstinately adhere to her opinions, — es-
pecially if she cannot, in a friendly way, offer an argu-

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

341

ment strong enough to convince him he is wrong. One
or the other of every married pair will have to be willing
to give in, in all trivial matters that come up from day
to day, if a harmonious degree of existence is to be
reached.

It is certainly natural to assume that ordinarily the
wife will be the one to concede most. She is supposed to
be endowed with all the gentler attributes. Therefore our
advice, — irrespective of all the arguments which may be
made, and which we need not even hint at, here, but
which are at the tongue's end of every so-called ad-
vanced woman, — is for the young wife to gratefully
concede a great deal to her husband.

If a man’s daily life is clean, and if his ambition is to
work in order to provide a comfortable home for his
wife and children, he is deserving of the love and confi-
dence of any true woman. And inasmuch as you have
chosen this man for your husband, for your guide and
for the father of your unborn children, it behooves you
to find out how you may quickly accommodate yourself
to be his helpmate, his friend, his confidant and com-
panion, throughout all the years of your life. Let us as-
sure you without fear of contradiction, that you will
endear yourself to him by your willingness to be advised
and guided by him. Such an attitude will engender a
tangible confidence that may be drawn upon to weather
temperamental contests that might otherwise prove to be
serious obstacles in building up a mutual respect and
trust and which is essential to peace and happiness. He
will look for your word of cheer, and he will willingly
tell you more and more of his inmost thoughts and am-
bitions, and unconsciously he will rely upon your judg-
ment, your womanly intuition, your help, in every move he
makes. The time when you will have to “give in” will
have passed away. You will have made yourself part
of his life, his mentality, you will have reached the goal
of domestic happiness, and that is as near paradise as
most of us reach in this world. It all depends upon “how
you go about it” in the first few months of married life.

Consider the other picture. If a wife cultivates, or
has the inherited inclination to argue trifles, to bicker

342

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

X ZE T'Z 0i 0PI1}10tl> even if she wins occasion-

3’, X . T 316 gai" ? Nothin? ! The husband re-

XWtlXbW7 , ?rSu.,?ent- His pride is wounded
~t the thought that his wife needs to be convinced of

bre7c°^llll0n+i C adva™-es. Such an attitude completely
breahs down the tangible confidence that is essential to

fon ffn tf haPP'ness- Soon he begins to keep his opin-
ion, to himself; the serpent enters the home; the wife

in Wni16! IS lntTen!sted in, things of which he does not
heri Jealousy, lack of confidence, doubt— the
keletons of all domestic peace and happiness soon ac-

nn^rffi 1 nflr- terr.lb,e and tragic work, and the end is
not difficult to imagine.

Most of tile tilings regarding which husbands and
wives quarrel are of no special moment. Thev are not
momentous subjects,— it is usually a trifle that mars
ie omestic peace. It takes but a few years for most
women to appreciate that many of the things that cause
lieai taches are not of any consequence at all. They
originate, as a rule, in one or the other failing to appre-
ciate that the other has certain individual rights which
demand some degree of respectful consideration. The
ego element m human nature is responsible for a very
considerable portion of the domestic 'infelicity that mars
the home life of a large proportion of the people.

invial Differences. — Many homes have been broken
or rendered permanently wretched by trivial differences.

} le maY like to play games, the wife may want

to read. One may like to go out to parties and theaters,
t ie other may want to stay at home. Before marriage
these differences appear the merest trifles and are the
subjects oi good-humored bantering; after marriage they
cause constant dissension, constant friction. A trifle is
the usual beginning, a . divorce may be the end. A little
lack of tact, an unwillingness to sacrifice self in a small

measure “at the right moment” and the friction would
have ended.

. a reflection upon our intelligence, and it is rather
significant that it should be the little, trifling things
that cause most of the troubles and heartaches in the
world. We rarely quarrel over the important episodes

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

343

of life; the real things, the things that constitute the
measure of our manhood and womanhood. Ask any
of your friends, be they Jew or Gentile, Catholic or
Protestant, Baptist or Episcopalian, Democrat or Re-
publican, whether, in their best judgment, it is better
to be honest or dishonest, clean or dirty, false or true,
intelligent or ignorant, an idler or a worker; whether
it is better to be gentle and kind or brutal and cruel, a
gossip and scandal monger or to mind our own business
and to speak kindly of our fellow-man, whether, in
short, it is better to be good or bad? And yet these
are the real, the fundamental qualities that brand a man,
or a woman, or a race of people, as worthy and true
and Christ-like.

To the eugenist, a thought obtrudes itself at this point.
It is the logical, the link between the cause and the
effect. Why do we waste so much time arguing and
fighting over non-essentialis ? Why is the world such
a big quarreling-pot over nothing? And the eugenist
suggests, if it is not possible, that the explanation may
be found, in the fact, that the human family, as a race,
is below par; that so many of us are incomplete; that
it is the product of the combined mental effort of the
unworthy element that makes all the trouble ? It is
scarcely logical to assume, that an individual who has
been brought into the world by healthy, worthy parents,
and whose ancestry for generations have been clean, hon-
est people ; and whose upbringing and education has
been adequate to fit him to become a respectable, decent
citizen, could, or would be a trouble maker. On the
other hand, can we expect, or are we justified in hoping
that an individual whose ancestral record is bad, whose
environmental conditions are faulty, whose education has
been neglected, who is in all probability physically and
mentally deficient, will be capable of conforming to the
standards of the other individual? From an imperfect
whole, may we not naturally expect bad parts? From
a diseased body and mind, may we not look for a low
standard of thought and action? And may not these
conditions account for the greater part of the little, as
well as the big, troubles that mar the peace and progress

344

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

of the race? Will not the elimination of the eugenically
unworthy rid the world of its heartaches and sorrows?
It is not only a suggestive thought, it is an inspiration
tor the exeicise of the supreme intelligence of the states-
man, the sociologist, the teacher and the preacher alike.

Dinerences oi Principle. — 1 here are more serious dif-
ferences than those of taste, however. There are differ-
ences of principle.

They do not reveal themselves before the promise
for better or for worse.” The sentimental days of
courtship aid not bring them out. But now that they
have settled down to the routine of ordinarv living, na-
ture brings them to the surface and the issue must be
met. It is discovered that the wife is a devout Christian
snd a faithful church attendant while the husband in-
sists on his wife spending Sunday in the country, or
at the seashore. The woman tries to get her husband
to go to church but she fails. He tried to get her to
accompany him but he does not succeed. There is a rift
in the lute, little sorrowful heart pangs on the part of the
woman, and the man feels sore and grouchy and wan-
ders away alone, then finally open quarrels and indif-
ference. Two lives are pulling apart. Someone must

S' • \ . one? The observance of her re-

ligious duties to the wife is a matter of principle. The
husband s method of spending Sunday is simply habit.

e has no right to interfere with her liberty in this re-
spect. The one to give in is the one whose conscience
is not trampled upon. If the husband refuses to go to
church with his wife,. he can do so amicably, and in such
a tactful way that his wife cannot reasonably feel per-

» ^ ^ f fie must not object to his wrife

going to chuich, nor has he the right to insist on being
accompanied, in his outing by his wife. On the other
hand, the wife must not nag or quarrel with him con-
tinuously on the subject of religion. Those little in-
cidents will come up in the experience of every married
couple. They are not serious or insurmountable in them-
selves, but they can be made serious by mismanagement.

The true wife is the homemaker, not simply the house-
keeper. She is responsible for its attractiveness and its

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

345

comfort, its morals and its existence. The marriage vow
“does not make a wife, but comradeship in the bearing
of the burdens of life, does.” She must be Love and
Justice and Truth to her children, and companion and
friend and helpmeet to her husband.

We, therefore, advise the young wife to begin wedded
life with definite plans and ideals.

The Attainment of Success. — In the first place, you
do want your particular matrimonial venture to be a suc-
cess. Success in one sense is getting what you want.
You must, however, know exactly what you want. Very
few people know what they want, but those few are the
ones who manage to “get there.” If you ask a dozen
of your friends what their plan of life is, what they are
working for, what they really want, not one of them
probably could tell you with any degree of exactness.
Most people go along in an indefinite way, working from
day to day, more or less dissatisfied, and with absolutely
no feeling of certainty as to what the future holds in
store for them.

Human effort is an example of energy misdirected
and it is the greatest potential energy in the universe.
Really to want something means that we must be will-
ing to sacrifice everything necessary to attain our wish,
and to concentrate and direct all our efforts in its at-
tainment. To do this, we must be efficient, we must
be healthy, we must strive day and night, and we must
want intensely to achieve success.

During the first few weeks of married life the young
wife, if she is a wise little lady, will take stock. She
will begin to think, and she will naturally speculate about
the future. She will try to determine the facts in her
particular life that are the important ones so far as the
attainment of success is concerned. Her material suc-
cess of course is dependent upon the efficiency of her
husband.. Now, a married man’s efficiency depends al-
most entirely on his wife. If a man attains great material
success, he will acknowledge, if he acknowledges the
truth, that his wife is deserving of most of the credit.
The husbands of most good, sensible wives are success-
ful. If a man is, unfortunately, married to a woman

348

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

who is not a heipmeet, who is not a well-balanced wife
and mother, and achieves success, he does so by reason
of his innate strength of character and in spite of the
unjust chain on his efficiency. Most men under these
circumstances however lose heart and interest and be-
come failures.

d he ) oung wiie, therefore, will definitely plan in just
wiiat way she can contribute to her husband’s efficiency.

Yv'hat Are the Requisites of Efficiency? Good
Health.-— He must have regular meals. The food must
be carefully selected and suitable to his personal needs,
according to the character of the work in which he is
engaged. The food must be properly and thoroughly
cooked. If he does not understand the science of eating,
the wife must educate him. Remember his success means
>our success, his failure, your failure. If you were in
charge of a highly complicated machine, you would not
allow it to be ruined by careless misuse. You may have
married a healthy animal, but animals are tricky and
uncertain. He is still your lover and he will do any-
thing reasonable for you, if you “go about it in the
right spirit and in the right way.” Be sure you “go
about it in the right way.” Be tactful, be patient, don’t
nag. Don t tell him of his faults, simply note them,
then determine what you want to accomplish. In a little
while,, he will become enthusiastic and will be telling
his friends how to eat, and what to eat, and, later, he
may try to convince you that he thought of the idea
first. This is the typical man. You will learn how to
manage him, and your first success will encourage you —
he will be a child in your hands — if you only “go about
it right.” And this applies to everything you do that
has any relation to domestic peace and happiness and
final success.

The woman who grasps the meaning of the following
truism and determines to practice it, is well on her way
to happiness and success. “It is the man that has a system
in both life and business that wins the battles.”" The
struggle of life has become so strenuous that most every-
one’s nerves are always near the explosive point, — the
man who has a system in life has discovered that there is

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

347

nothing to be gained by being disrespectful or discour-
teous, or by butting rough-shod into the affairs or in-
terests of other people; tact, diplomacy, flattery, the tem-
peramental capacity to wiggle around the explosive cor-
ners of other peoples’ irascible nerves to gain your point,
is “having a system,” and it wins battles. The young
wife who knows how to do this, is so far ahead of the
army of ordinary young wives, that she need not take
time to look around to see if the others are gaining
ground. They will never overtake her.

Rest and Sleep.— The husband must get enough rest
each night, so don’t drag him away to parties and balls
and late suppers. Be a philanthropist— give him the
care you would give a thoroughbred horse with which
you hoped to win a big stake. Let him think, however,
that you are doing it for his sake. To you the prize is a
greater stake — it means life’s failure or success. Re-
member you are in this fight to win. The gratification
of whims and fancies during the first year of married
life leads to the establishment of expensive habits, and
may be the one factor that will mean failure in the fu-
ture, when you will wish, with all your heart that you
had begun differently. The time to sacrifice, to work
hard, to plan ahead, is when one is young; when hope
is strong and health is good — not when ambition falters,
when age grows weary, when efficiency is impossible,
and when regrets crowd in on us and failure crushes en-
ergy and hope and happiness. The struggle of life is a
real one to every soul born, but it is worth the fight,
and the glory of a fight won is the greatest human satis-
faction this side of the grave. Try it, try to win.

Enough Exercise. — Be sure your husband is getting
enough exercise. If his work is desk work, think out
some plan to compel him to take the exercise every
healthy animal requires. Make up your mind definitely
what is necessary and exactly what it is you want him
to do, and then begin to work in your own successful
way with that object in view. It may be systematized
gymnastic work he needs. If so, suggest to him the ad-
visability of becoming a member of a club or gymnasium,
or get two sets of exercisers and begin work on them

348

THE EUGENIC marriage

yourself if necessary. Devote ten minutes ever/ morning
and night to exercise. He will soon follow' you, and
many happy contests you will have and profitable ones

p! t^e.t ler s the secret of domestic peace.

Even if this reads like slavery or self-immolation, what

. 1° '• You are happy, you are working for some-

ie time will come when you will have realized
your ambition. Domestic happiness and material success
are worth all we are asked to pay for them and they are
never obtainable on the bargain counter.

It may be outdoor exercise he needs, try golf, swim-

nlmN’ ^aseball? anything to gain your point ; and,

all the time, remember you are leading him by your apron-

s.nng because you have discovered the secret of “how
to go about it.”

Freedom From Worry.— A man cannot work efficient-
h and worry at the same time. Modern business methods
are conducted on such a strenuous basis that, to keep “in
ie nng 3. man needs every ounce of reserve he can
command. Don’t imagine your husband is totally free
irom cares and responsibilities just because he is not at
business. He may have left his office a few minutes
eai iei t lan usual to get away from trouble. Encourage
the system. . When a man feels in his heart that there is
one person in the world to whom he can always turn, and
be sure of a loving, sympathetic greeting, one who under-
stancis and believes in him, one place he can always go
and feel certain of enjoying peace, and comfort and con-
tentment, there is little danger of any friend supplanting
the wife, or any club or saloon taking the place of home.

. r ° Your Part. — The moment you know your husband
is in the house, change the expression on your face, smile,
even if it pains you, and go to him with a familiar word
of greeting and give him a kiss. Do this every day of
your life, unless when you are sick in bed, when he will
go to you. Establish this habit, and if ever the day
comes when he returns from work and there is no greet-
ing, no kiss, stop the whole domestic ship, regard it as a
tragedy. Don t let the first entering wedge of discord
come into your life. If there is no first quarrel, there will
never be a second. If you are at fault you had better

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

349

right matters at once or take the consequences. Take
our advice. Don’t experiment with a man. Deep down,
every man is a brute. There is a certain elemental devil
in every male animal. Don’t rouse it. You are only a
woman. Don’t invite a quarrel. You will get the worst
of it. Keep on the peaceful side of the street. It is al-
ways a mistake to talk too much. Words are poison
when silence is golden. You cannot make a mistake by
leaving the husband alone if he is at fault. Time is a
wonderful physician ; she will heal almost any wound.
Your tact, your silence, your seeming fear (in other
words, your method “of going about it in the right spirit
and in the right way”), and an opportunity to think it
over, will make him ashamed of himself. He will want
to crawl back into your good graces and the lesson will
be a long remembered one to him, — if, and this is
tremendously important — the wife does not glory in her
triumph and nag him about it. The temptation to err is
great and there are few young wives who can resist it.
Keep silent, however. Don’t refer to it and you will win
more than you know. Blessed is she who can forget
what is not worth remembering.

You will have averted the first quarrel and, inasmuch
as the “first quarrel” is an historic event in every mar-
ried woman’s experience, it may be worthy of a little
further consideration.

The First Quarrel.— Some women become weak in a
crisis and spoil their own chances of success, despite the
fact that circumstances may have been working in their
favor. Some women meet a crisis bravely and do exactly
the right thing at the right time but falter and fail after
the crisis has passed. Take, for example, the incident we
have just narrated. When a husband brings into the
home a sample of his real self, for the first time, it is not
really an unexpected event, though it may be an un-
pleasant shock to the young wife; and she must not
render it an important incident by mismanagement.
Nevertheless, it is in itself a momentous occasion, and it
may prove to be the moment of destiny. The spirit of
the lover has been the dominant spirit so far, the at-
mosphere of the honeymoon has continued, there has been

350

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

- , ' ict‘0n> 110 quarrel. To-night the husband has ear-
ned a business grouch into the home, his militant im-

P“1^s.a,rei'ustJ ^e,°w ‘he surface, the slightest unfortunate
word, the least lack of tact, a failure to “sense” the situa-
lon correct y, wi explode the mine and wreck a dream.
Deep down m the man’s heart he does not want a quarrel,
but the brute in him will fight if the environment ‘invites
1 . It takes two. to quarrel. Silence on the part of the
vi e, l lerefore, is the only solution of the problem. If
the first quarrel never takes place the second will never
have to be dreaded. Silence, no matter what the provoca-
tion may be; no. matter how acute the sense of injustice

^aiy^e’i S1 enCe-,l\the only safe way out- The husband,
it leit alone, will be ashamed of the situation his lack of

self-control has created, the lover spirit will conquer the
Drute. He will regret the pain he has caused; he will
want to forget and be forgiven quickly though he may
not go tn rough the. formality of an apology. “ A formal
apo ogy and reconciliation will, in his judgment, dignify
the episode and make a mountain out of a molehill The
wne will be wise to so regard it though it is an injustice
o ner. 1 he husband will not underestimate the im-
portance of the event, however, and in many ways will
°e a better husband in future, but he does not want to
take about it or be talked to regarding it. This is part
of the psychology of the male, and the successful wife
discovers it early and acts accordingly.

Having safely piloted your craft through the troubled
waters, don t prove weak and silly when you reach a
safe harbor. When the moment of passive reconcilia-
tion arrives, ^when it is necessary to resume the domestic
routine, don’t show the spirit of resentment. Be pleas-
ant, don’t cry, don’t become hysterical. Be strong ig-
nore the whole affair, leave it in the hands of time’ and
forget it. The victory is yours, don’t lose it.

Fault Finding. At a later date, when, in all proba-
bihty the wife will be the one whose conduct will incite
trouble because of the worries incident to her more or
less monotonous, domestic existence, much care will
have to be exercised so that an unwitting fretfulness
ma} not cause quarrels. When a man comes home at

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

351

night tired and hungry, longing for peace, and comfort,
and pleasant conversation, it is worse than anarchy to
not only get no greeting, but to note the discontent on
his wife’s face, and to listen to a tirade of fault finding.
Your husband has troubles of his own. The maid’s im-
pudence, the crossness of the baby, the noise of the neigh-
bor’s children, the toughness of the meat from the butcher,
do not interest him. He is hungry, he wants to eat,
and above all, he wants rest and peace. We are con-
sidering this subject from the economic standpoint. The
young wife must recognize that if she is a fault finder,
if she worries her husband, she interferes with his
efficiency and jeopardizes the attainment of success —
her own success. From a purely selfish standpoint, it
is a bad investment.

It may interest many young wives to know, that a
number of large corporations have recently begun to
systematically investigate the domestic environment of
their employees. If it is found that they are not happy,
or that they do not enjoy a restful and congenial home
life, they discharge them. They claim that a man who
is worried cannot be efficient, and if he is not efficient
he is not a dependable individual to have in their em-
ploy. Some railroads will not allow an engineer to
drive a passenger train after it is discovered that he is
unhappily married. The young wife should, therefore,
appreciate that she may be directly responsible for her
husband’s efficiency and success. If a woman is guilty
of conduct that interferes with the earning capacity of
her husband she is erecting an obstacle to happiness
and success that is fundamental, permanent and insur-
mountable. In justice to herself and to her husband
and to the future she should promptly decide if the con-
ditions are such that a change is impossible, and if so
she should, in order to avert a tragedy, seek a separation.

Work Must Be Interesting.— No man can exert the
highest degree of efficiency if he is not interested in his
work. This has become a business truism. How can
the wife aid in this matter? By cooperation, by tactful
advice, by suggesting new methods, by originating new
ideas that may open the way to new possibilities.

352

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

Even menial work is interesting if we regard it as
a stepping-stone to something better. It must be done
thoroughly, however, to justify this hope. Life is a
struggle, a struggle in which many are vanquished and
few survive. Only those few survive who fit most per-
fectly to their environment. If a man is getting proper
nourishment and sufficient exercise, and is free from

m in 0t.her words he has vitality, he cannot pos-
sibly fail to give full value for what he receives. His
work will at least be satisfactory. If his lack of inter-
est m his work is because it does not fully satisfy his
ambition, this is a splendid opportunity for the tactful
and resourceful wife.

It was suggested to an enterprising little wife, whose
husband was earning a small salary as a bookkeeper,
to advise him to study stenography and correspondence
at t le Y. M. C. A. He did so, and is now the private
secretary of the president of a large corporation, at a
salary of six thousand dollars per year. His wife en-
couraged and cajoled him during the long winter ni°Iits
when he studied late. She sacrificed herself by giving
up all social entertainments and other pleasures. She
catered to his tastes and comfort, and she talked so
entertainingly during spare moments of what the future
would be when he was a great success, that he was sim-
ply compelled to make good. She got her reward, and
the very struggle and effort strengthened their charac-
ters, broadened their sympathies, and taught them the
true meaning of love and affection.

Other young wives may achieve similar success if
they go about it right.” That is the secret. That was
the secret of this young wife’s success. She first knew
what she wanted, she then prepared the way by tact-
fully showing her husband how he could increase his
efficiency. She kept the subject diplomatically before
him by directly praising him, assuring him that he had
the ability, that he would find it easy, that he was meant
for higher things.” Then she drew word pictures
of where they would live, the kind of house she would
like and the new furniture she would buy, and where they
would spend their vacations when he was earning the

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

353

salary which she knew he was worth. They began to
live in this future, it became part of their life, his prule
was awakened, he would be ashamed to fail, he was
whipped to the post and spurred to the finish and he
won the race, because he had married the right kind
of a woman. 4 'The right kind of a woman, the woman
who knows that “the marriage vow” does not make a
wife, but that comradeship in the bearing of the burdens
of life does.

The Wife’s Part.— Having read the preceding pages
some young wives may ask if that is really what being
married means? If it is all work and sacrifice and no
pleasure? That is exactly what it means and if there
is no pleasure in work and sacrifice, then there is no
pleasure in married life. The young wife who fails to
see the significance of this interpretation of what has
been written has a fundamentally wrong idea of what
married life means.

A woman who begins her wedded life with less loyal
ideals than are depicted in the performance of the duties
we have enumerated is imposing on her husband and
is false to herself. She will not attain happiness and
success. To marry in order to have a good time should
be a state’s prison offence.

Happiness and contentment and success are products
of duty well done. They are the logical recompense
for effort and sacrifice. Individual happiness is not the
chief object of existence in this life. To work efficiently
is the supreme obligation. It is naturally to desire happi-
ness and to labor for it; but it is absurd to be annoyed
and angry because we do not find it. Happiness through
marriage is never attained except by never-ending self-
abnegation and effort.

We must struggle or we will degenerate. A correct
interpretation of racial progress proves this truth. Effort
is the supreme law. All good things have been given
to man at the price of labor.

ADVICE TO YOUNG WIVES

CHAPTER XXV

“Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will
breed in you temperance, self-control, diligence, strength of
will, content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never

kn0W‘ Charles Kingsley.

HOW TO ACHIEVE

What the Young Wife Owes to Herself— Why Was I Born—
What Are the Personal Qualities Necessary to Success—
What Are the Personal Qualities Necessary to Happiness
—Self-control— What is a Thought— The Evil Habit of
Hasty Judgment— The Bad Thought Habit— Training the
Mind — Go About it in the Right Way — Be Sure Your
Husband’s Friends Are Your Friends— Be a Good Fellow
—Two Kinds of People in the World— Everything De-
pends Upon What We Do With Our Mind— The Most
Popular Woman— The Gift of Flattery— Choosing Your
Friends — True Friendship Expects and Demands Noth-
ing— True Friendship is Necessary — “By Your Friends
Shall Ye Be Known”— Making Resolves— The Formula •
of Success — When Fortune Knocks.

What the Young Wife Owes to Herself. — If the
young wife is making a conscientious effort to do her
duty, there are certain things she owes to herself, to her
husband, to her unborn children. She too must pre-
serve her health, her efficiency. In guarding the health
and contributing to the efficiency of her husband, she
will have done much in this direction. She will, how-
ever, have many spare moments at her disposal. We
have already remarked that these are the moments of
destiny. In the coming years she will look back upon
these moments with real pride, or regret, according to
how she spent, or misspent them. Let us begin all over
again, with renewed interest and enthusiasm, and try to
understand just what is meant by this.

Every human being asks himself, or herself, at some
time in life, the questions, “Why was I born? For what
purpose was I created and put upon this earth? Is
there any real object or purpose in living, except to pass
the time from day to day, and year to year?” To most,

357

358

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

the reply is perplexing,— and not at all satisfactory. All
great minds who have deeply studied this problem, unan-
imously agree that there is a purpose in life. We are
n?t. ,a t.hll?§' aPft— an isolated entity. We are part
of the living whole; every thought, every deed, every
spoken word, every sentiment, every passion, every
prayer, is inter-related with every other thought, deed,
wor , sentiment, passion and prayer of every other living
thing m all eternity. We have an ideal to maintain, and
it we are untrue or fail, we interrupt, we desecrate the
everlasting scheme of the universe. We will therefore
De held responsible for our manner of living,— for the
sum total of our existence. We have a purpose to ful-
fill, a responsibility to sustain. If we are false to that
purpose, and fail in our responsibilities, we rob the world
ot the help we should bestow, and, in a far larger meas-
ure, we deprive ourselves of benefits and pleasures, every
our hves, greater than we can conceive.
t world is many centuries old, and many millions of
human beings have lived and died during that time. A
certain percentage of these men and women lived lives
which bettered the world. They left a thought which
will live through all the ages. They proved the truth
or some basic unchanging principle. They drew the
attention of mankind to the reality of a certain immutable
fact. These truths, these principles, these facts, have all
been tested, and they have been found to be everlasting.
In. other words, .we find there are certain truths, certain
principles, certain facts, that every living thing must
obey, must subscribe to, must live up to or perish. Every
thought, every deed, every movement, of every living
thing, is regulated by unalterable laws which govern
our lives and to which we must conform or pay the
penalty in failure. Human nature is God’s riddle !

What are the Personal Qualities That Experience
has Shown to be Necessary in the Attainment of Hap-
piness and Success? — Experience has taught us that
cei tain personal qualifications are essential to the attain-
ment of success and happiness. We must, for example,
be master of ourselves. We must have acquired the art
of self-control. Self-control is an evidence of a high

HO W TO ACHIEVE

359

intelligence. There are many gradations of mental prog-
ress before complete self-control is reached. Complete
self-mastery in matrimonial conflicts is a long and diffi-
cult acquisition. Probably it is fully acquired in the few-
est possible cases. The one who acquires self-control,
who gives in during the adaptative period of which
we have written, is not the weaker. The young wife
should always keep in mind that the underlying prin-
ciple to be vigorously adhered to in the home, is justice.
There will arise many occasions that will severely test
your disposition and your patience, but, if you have your-
self well in hand, if you understand yourself, you will
emerge from the conflict successfully and as a conse-
quence a little stronger. When we acquire the deter-
mination to efface self in these domestic squabbles we
begin the building of a character.

What is a Thought?— The greatest product of crea-
tive inspiration is the human brain. The very fact that
each human being possesses one of these . marvelous
products implies responsibility, the responsibility of what
we will do with it. A thought is a creation of brain or
mind activity. It may be a bad or evil thought or it
may be a good thought. Let us now go back to the
young wife just as she is about to begin the hour or
so of recreation in the afternoon. Her work being done
for the time, let us suppose she elects to do a little fancy
needle work. She finds a comfortable seat and is soon
apparently engrossed in her work. Is she? Doubtless
she is, and a very commendable, harmless, inviting pic-
ture she presents, but a thousand thoughts are passing
through her mind. It is not the sewing that she does,
that will be weighed in the balance, it is not the patient
stitch, stitch, stitch, that .she takes, that will mark the
hour well spent. It is the one thought that will, pre-
dominate over all the others, that wiil tell the ultimate
tale, because of its effect on her own mind. A thought
once created, even if it is never expressed, is as much a
created entity as a deed executed.

Suppose this young wife attended a social gathering
in some friend’s house the evening before, and for some
trifling reason she formed an unfavorable impression of

360

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

another lady guest; during the hour of her sewing,
[which we are discussing, she goes ever in her mind all
the incidents of the gathering, and because of the previous
impression, she still thinks unkindly of the lady in ques-
tion. She passes judgment upon her in her own mind.
[What has she really done? She has created a thought,
an opinion, which now becomes a part of her mind, be-
cause it is recorded in her brain cells forever, and, inas-
much as she was not justified in passing judgment upon
a person’s character in this hasty way, she harmed her-
self by establishing a bad habit, — a habit of hasty judg-
ment,— which will have an effect on her method of judg-
ment as long as she lives. The evil effect may not end
here, — it seldom does. A chance remark, — still the prod-
uct of the hasty opinion, — made to some other woman
regarding this lady, will give this other woman an un-
favorable impression of the person, and if you could trace
all the little gradations of the first unjust opinion, through
all the stages of a gossiping community, you would be
astonished at the growth, and the evil accomplished by
the thought, born amidst the apparently innocent and
commendable surroundings of an hour’s sewing. If you
educate your mind to create bad thoughts you will be-
come a victim of the habit. Each bad thought makes
the creation of another bad thought more easy, because
a bad habit is, as we all know, a difficult thing to live
down. Therefore a bad thought unexpressed does harm
only to the individual who creates the thought. If the
bad thought is expressed to another party, it is impos-
sible to tell or estimate the harm it may do. Life is what
we make it. If we get into the habit of thinking unjust,
unkind, selfish, bad thoughts, we live in that atmosphere.
Your whole life will be a reflection of your mental atti-
ture. If you feed your mind on such food how can you
hope to grow into a contented, happy woman? Let us
not dwell upon the dark side. There is another picture,
one more inviting, more difficult to realize, it is true, but
more perfect as a consequence.

Training the Mind. — There never was a time in the
history of the world when so many people were striving
after definite knowledge, — some scheme of mentality,

361

HOW TO ACHIEVE

some mental atmosphere,— some spiritual or idealistic
phenomena, — which would satisfy the craving, ie
ger of the restless and dissatisfied human mind or ab-
solute enlightenment regarding the mysteries of 1 •

is a curious fact that to attain such knowledge, all these
various bodies, no matter how they may differ as to he
method of procedure, concede that the education of the
human mind and the recognition of its exact capat»
is the ultimate province through which final enlighte

We must, therefore, recognize that on whatever w
with our mind, in our own little way, will depend
measure of success and happiness to which we may a
pire. Success is not attained without effort, bl'tev,J
little effort we expend will help wonderfully in the task.
Train your mind to think just, kind, good thoug s.
not dwell upon the bad side of any problem, search tor
the good side, because every problem has a good side. ,
also has every human soul. When the unklfid, the tin-
just, the bad thought is conveyed to you by another, do
not admit it, do not dwell upon it, render it negative at
once by assuring yourself that there is another side to
the question. We 3.11 know how easy it is to kick the
under dog. We all have in mind some friend, some
acquaintance, some old lady, perhaps, who is famous in
her community for her kindly ways, and for her kindly
thoughts. The two go together. It is well known among
her friends that she will not tolerate any unkind, unjust,
evil report, of even the humblest or lowest member of
society to be expressed in her presence, without instantly
defending the maligned victim, by picturing the possible
other side. Her life has been an example, an inspira-
tion in the community, because she has always exerted
a kindly, sympathetic, helpful influence. It is this at-
mosphere, this environment, that checks gossip, stifles
scandal, saves heartaches, and prevents domestic trage-
dies.

The most interesting study you will ever, engage in,
if you are true to yourself, will be the working of your
own mind.

The resourcefulness of your brain will be a constant

362

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

pleasure to you. You will be aided by books and von
will find a lesson in every thing you see and hear d Hf!
will appear different, and you will rise above the plane
in which the little routine annoyances of daily life seem
u dens and sorrows. A woman, if she goes about it

she pleases11 iTshe d?pWith her lover-husband what
nr W ! If h uses.that Power for selfish motives

If he is fa°rnfePUrP0Se,um the ,end she wil1 be the losen
l e ls /ar s.eemg, and uses her power to build un a

estty gAes hinThi’s ^ ^ ^ Zn-

y g ves him his true place in her scheme and loves

and honors him, and is tactful, there is noTmkto wha?

We alI Pno, i l fnd ?nd Children are concerned.
i*i . w law is not always justice We

LumTnebein°:V % ^ iS n° SUch "alj ™ a perto
human being. The ability to gain a point, without ap-
parent coercion, or a sacrifice of truth or honor, depends
upon the successful qualities that go toward the building
up of a complete and harmonious personality. It is an
axiom m psychology that to attain the highest success
one must first understand, and, understanding, conquer
the bad, and develop the good features in one’s own
temperament, before attempting to rule the conduct of
any other person. You must understand yourself be-
tore you attempt to understand your husband. Manv
of his best qualities,— qualities that if rightly understood,
will go a long way toward making your life a happy
one, can be misunderstood, misinterpreted, and become
incessant factors for doubt, jealousy and quarreling.

ecause your. husband prefers to do a thing in a way
that does not quite satisfy your taste, does not necessarily
mean that he is wrong, and such a condition does not
justify an argument. Consider the matter seriously in
silence argue it out with yourself and give his side ’the
same justice you hope to get. If you can develop con-
vincing proofs, that his way is not the best way, even
though it isnt. really wrong ethically, he will probably
concede the point, provided,— and don’t overlook this,—
y°.u. g°Tab.0Ut £ m the right way, and in the right
spirit. It isn t likely you will be given a patient hear-

HOW TO ACHIEVE

363

in^*, if in the past you have been in the habit of nagging
and browbeating him. Don’t look upon tactful ways
of gaining your point as evidence of weakness. It is
distinctly an evidence of strength of character, and, each
time you win a point in a friendly debate with your hus-
band, you will have gained much. He will respect you
all the more because of your justice; and will secretly
admire you because of your ability to protect yourself.
You will gain confidence in your judgment, and you will
see things in a broader, and from a less selfish stand-

point. .

Your Husband’s Friends Should be Your Friends.—

Be sure your husband’s friends are your friends. Busi-
ness or professional exigencies do not always permit a
man to choose or select his acquaintances. You can be
sure, however, he will not ask or expect you to associate
with any doubtful person, though it may be necessary
to extend a welcome to an undesirable business, or pro-
fessional associate, for the time being. When these oc-
casions occur, do not mar the opportunity to help by
any exhibition of temper, or dissatisfaction. _ He may be
trying to make the best of an unfortunate incident. . Help
him. Do not discourage him for at heart his object is
to gain some business advantage that will redound to
your advantage as well as his own.

Nothing pleases a man more than to know that his
wife is “a good fellow,” that no matter what seems to be
questionable on the surface, he can rely upon her to
know that everything is right underneath, — that his
motive is good.

Do not invite him to tell a lie in order to avoid a
scolding. Nothing is more unfortunate, nothing is more
easy for an ordinarily good, but misunderstood man,
than the tendency to fib about little things, if he feels in
his heart that his wife will scold, — that she will fail to
see the point. It wounds his self-respect to have to do
so, yet he selects the minor evil as he sees it, he sacrifices
his manhood in the interests of domestic peace.

Two Kinds of People in the World. — Roughly, there
are two kinds of individuals in the world, the individual
who will, and the individual who will not. There are

364 THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

individuals who will not see the truth, who fail to see
the point in an argument, who are obtuse and obstinate.
This trait is largely wilful perversity and ignorance.
We cannot help noting them in the passing, but we
scarcely hope to interest them, though we cannot restrain
our sympathy.

Young wives who come within this category will re-
main the laggards, the degenerates. Their evolution is
revolution, they become the fault-finders, the discontents,
the gossips. They do not love themselves nor are they
loved by any human being. They are the domestic
failures. As wives they dishonor the sex, as mothers
they dishonor God.

In reality, there is but one thing in the universe — mind.
By “mind,” we mean the ability to reason. Every human
being comes into the world with this ability. Our health,
happiness, efficiency, success, depends absolutely upon
how we utilize this birthright. There is no limitation
to this ability. Heredity and environment have little to
do with it. It is a personal equation. “It depends upon
how you do it,” has been frequently reiterated in the
preceding pages. This implies, to what use you put
your mind, and this is the secret of the young wife’s
efficiency and. success. True happiness is a mind
product. It is a creation of mind activity. The
evanescent pleasures are not character builders, but a
created thought is a pregnant possibility. The young
wife who begins her wedded life with ideals with the
determination to succeed, with certain well thought out
plans, will progress. Her world is her husband and her
home. Her husband must succeed, her home must be
comfortable and happy. She must contribute her full
share in achieving these results. If she permits her
personal amusement to be the dominant purpose she will
fail. She cannot transgress the law and remain immune.
How can she begin right? Give her best to her home.
A woman who gives her most gracious smiles and her
most captivating manners to society, is false to her
husband and her home. The prettiest gown and the
brightest jewels should grace her own dinner table. To
bring them out only to attend a reception, or a tea party,

HOW TO ACHIEVE

365

is a desecration. Many women expend their moral and
spiritual strength upon the “club,” and bring the wither-
ing remnants as a sacrifice to the blighted home fireside.
We have no right to help build a church, or foster a
philanthropy by depleting our strength and resources in
the effort, only to give the frazzled ends of our talents
to home and home-making. Nor has a woman any right
to exhaust her strength in the toil of mere housekeeping,
and reserve for the evening hour of conversation a
bundle of quivering nerves and an exasperated temper.
These women are not home-makers. Their ideal of
wifehood and motherhood is fundamentally wrong.
Every power of the body, and of the mind and spirit,
should be devoted to the achievement of a home at-
mosphere. It is the creation of this quality that spells
contentment, peace, happiness, and no other.

A young wife with an ideal, with a definite plan, and
with a true appreciation of her dignity and importance,
will never find time to daily gossip over the bacx fence
with her neighbor, nor will she join the sewing circle
whose function is well known to be scandal bartering.
“Give your best to your home,” — one of the great ad-
vantages of having a specific plan is that it wholly en-
gages our mind. If we have an object in view, if we
want something, it implies interest,, and if we. are inter-
ested deeply in something we think about it. Every
spare moment will be used by the mind in devising
ways and means to achieve our purpose. We will not
find time to seek the questionable amusement of gossip.
The women who are eternally poking their noses into
other people’s business, who burden their minds with
other people’s affairs, who are busybodies, always neglect
their homes and their children. They have no ideals,
they are the derelicts of the community. Remember that
“Satan finds some mischief still for idle minds to do.”
The Most Popular Woman.— The most popular wom-
an is the one whom a majority of all women would vote
for in a popularity contest. Many women are so notori-
ously vixenish and jealous of members of their own sex,
that, it would seem to be worth while to analyze the
qualifications of the most popular woman, in an effort

366

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

to discover the one quality which appeals to her own
sex. After exhausting the list, we find the most popular
woman possesses, in a high degree, the quality of tact-
ful, or diplomatic flattery. The art of flattery is an
acquired habit. Statesmen and politicians know its
value. Even the little seekers after public office cultivate
it assiduously. It is undoubtedly an asset of much value
m every sphere of life, but it must not be overdone.
Every member of the human family will tolerate a large
amount of it without showing resentment. This is the
i eason why it is a valuable asset and of such general use-
fulness. Sometimes a woman will boast that she detests
flattery, yet she is highly pleased when you tell her that
the one quality you admire in her is that she cannot be
flattered. If, therefore, the young wife desires to be-
come popular, for her own sake, or if she regards this
as one way to contribute to her husband’s efficiency,
should his success depend upon public approval, — she
may cultivate the art of diplomatic flattery. The cultiva-
tion of any art is not a one-sided accomplishment. It
is beneficial in many ways, and aids distinctly in character
building. No one, for example, can acquire the art of
tactful flattery and retain a sour or mean disposition.
To. flatter efficiently you must seem delighted, and the
delight must express itself in smiles and kindly words.
These habits will impress themselves upon your inner
consciousness, and before you know it, the habit will be
a constituent part of your temperamental arma-
mentarium.

The most popular woman will acquire the habit of
making some flattering observation every time anyone’s
name is mentioned, and she will never be guilty of
criticising a living person or a dead one. She will make
it her rule in life, in order to sustain her reputation,
never to make an enemy. She will cultivate the insinuat-
ing art of shaking hands, of smiling sweetly, and of
making apropos remarks. No one will ever leave her
without feeling that she is an exceedingly gracious
person. She will even convey to them, in her inimitable
way, the impression that she thinks they are “just right.”
She will use “blarney” as a science in an artful way.

HOW TO ACHIEVE

367

The flattering remarks she will make regarding others
will be passed along by those to whom she makes them,
and she will be responsible for an epidemic of egoism
all over town. It is a wonderful art.

If the young wife keeps this up for some time she will
begin to notice certain things. She will be accorded
much flattering attention herself and she will be treated
with marked consideration wherever she goes. She will
be received cordially, and every aspiring other woman will
make strenuous efforts to include her among her friends.
She will be invited to participate in public functions
when members of her sex take part, and she will be
favored and her interests furthered in all social organiza-
tions.

She will, without doubt, wear her laurels becomingly,
and her success will be easily acquired. Her spirits, and
her health will promptly respond to the elixir of her
interesting labors. Life will be full of new and surpris-
ing interests and it will be well worth the effort expended.
Sleep will be more refreshing, she will not be troubled
with nerves, and her appetite will be a source of profound
thankfulness to her. She will radiate a quality of good-
fellowship that will be infectious, and her whole
philosophy of existence will be charity itself. Surely it
is worth while.

Choosing Your Friends. — The young wife should
choose her friends with caution. Remember you are
beginning a new life in which even trivial matters may
exercise an influence that will be bad. One should ap-
preciate the difference between true friendship and in-
dulging in friendly relationship with promiscuous ac-
quaintances. A physician has a better opportunity of
observing the conduct of the feminine element of a com-
munity than any other person. We have come to divide
young wives into two types: those who attend strictly
to their own affairs, and those who mostly attend to
their neighbors’ affairs. It is not too much to say that
a young wife’s time will be wholly occupied if she has
begun her housekeeping career with the intention of be-
coming a home-maker. She cannot, therefore, afford
to waste her time with promiscuous acquaintances.

368

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

Women who become promiscuous in their friendships
have time to waste for a number of reasons, —

1st. Their husband and home is not their whole ex-
istence. If success and happiness depend upon how the
first year of wedded life is employed, then husband and
home should be the young wife’s whole existence.

2nd. Women with time to waste have no ideals.
Women without ideals are not home-makers. A home-
maker cannot acquire any information from a woman
who wastes her time in idleness.

3rd. Idleness creates mischief. One who is idle is a
mischief maker. An idle brain is looking for amuse-
ment, and as the impulses of an idle brain are evil, these
women are gossips, and scandal-mongers, and home-
breakers.

4th. True friendship demands nothing. Promiscuous
friendship on the other hand does demand something,
and as these women live in the evil atmosphere, they live
mentally on scandal and gossip. This is their mental
plane and they give and take nothing higher than that
which they understand.

The young wife will, therefore, be wary of this form
of friendship. Infinite harm is being done in every com-
munity in the country in this way. No home, no person
is too sacred for the vituperative tongues of these
scandal-mongers. They are densely ignorant though
they may be fluent talkers. They ingratiate themselves
into the confidence of a willing victim, learn the victim’s
secrets, and rend her to pieces on the next street corner.
Many a man has begun wedded life with the laudable
intention of helping to mold his young wife’s mentality,
of preserving her innocence and purity of thought, only
to be undone by the evil machinations of these human
derelicts. He will be amazed and astonished at the
opinions she gives utterance to, and if he does not find
out where she is getting them, and check the desecration
going on, she will be beyond his reach in the very near
future. No self-respecting woman will tolerate such
acquaintances. There are, however, many innocent, pure
women, who are innately too gentle to assert themselves
by insulting another woman at this stage of their ex-

HOW TO ACHIEVE

369

perience, who have the makings of a good wife and
mother, who wittingly become victims by reason of their
very gentleness, and consequently lose their ideals, and
drift into failures.

True friendship is necessary. Many men and women
rightly attribute their whole success and happiness to
having had the right kind of a friend or friends. Charles
Kingsley when asked by Mrs. Browning to tell, her the
secret of his life, said, “I had a friend.” A friendship
that is not an inspiration, an incentive to higher thoughts
and nobler deeds, is not true. “True friendship demands
nothing.” It gives. We should cultivate the friendship
of those who know more than we do, so that we may
learn and profit by the relationship. Some people radiate
sympathy and helpfulness and inspiration. Instinctively
we can tell those people when we come into, their
presence. We leave them, not once, but always, with the
feeling that there is something about them that energizes
and inspires. They draw out our better selves. We are
conscious of our shortcomings and faults, and in their
company we strive to give utterance to worthy thoughts.
We feel capable of great deeds. If we could surround
ourselves with these friends, we feel that life would
mean more, and that we could accomplish much. “He
that walketh with wise men shall be wise.” This is
where true friendship is valuable. These moments of
inspiration help us to pull ourselves together. We climb
a little higher ; we see further and clearer ; we learn the
meaning of life’s duty; they change the whole com-
plexion of living. The little things, the annoyances, the
disappointments, the failures, the pains, the sorrows, the
passions, we see in their true perspective and they no
longer usurp importance, because we are beginning to
learn the significance of the things beyond. The in-
cidents of life are no longer life itself.

One friend, one true friend to the young wife, will
indeed be a tower of strength to her. Every young wife
needs a friend. The desire for sympathy dwells in every
human heart. Even the assiduous person needs en-
couragement and a little praise. It is wonderful how
a mite of laudation will prod us to be more worthy. Even

370

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

our joys never intoxicate save in the telling. By sharing
our happiness and joys with another we double them.
True friendship means confidence, affection, harmony,
love. To be in harmony with one person means that we
invite the harmony of all mankind.

If man is made in the image of God every human
being must be more or less divine. Confidence, affection,
harmony, love, — the attributes of true friendship, — are
the divine sparks in our humanity. True friendship,
therefore, is growth in the divine sense. There are real
things in life which we seldom acknowledge but which
are, nevertheless, real. We do not often admit the ex-
istence of the divine in ourselves, but it is there. If
we did acknowledge it oftener we would live nearer the
truth, nearer God.

When we read in the public press the story of the
Titanic disaster, how after all the boats had gone, and
the ill-fated ship poised, before she took her awful
plunge, how the doomed souls stood on her decks and
lifted their trembling voices in unison with the brave
orchestra to the strain of “Nearer My God to Thee,” —
something clutches at our heartstrings, and we find the
divine reality trying to come to the surface to express
itself in that universal friendship out of which heroes
are made. When we stand by the bedside, watching the
fitful, final breaths of a well-loved child, or of an old,
honored and faithful mother, there creeps into our
consciousness feelings with which we are strangers, but
they are ours, part of the divinity in us which in the
work-a-day-world we stifle and crush. Friendship and
no other human quality brings this divine element into our
actual life. Those who have never had a friend have
never solved the riddle of human nature.

We must remember, however, that there are those
whose lives are denials of this divinity. They are in-
capable of true friendship, and they, in prosperous days,
deride the sentiment involved and consider any reference
to such matters as silly and mawkish. These blustering
heroes, however, are the ones who shriek the loudest
when fate places them on sinking decks. .

Strive to be worthy of a true friendship. Be willing

.

EXPLANATION OF SYMBOLS

Used in the Following Three Illustrations

Male Female

a

a

Feeble-minded.

m

(n)

Normal.

□

o

Mentality undetermined.

b

Shows the child in the Vineland Trainin

School.

I

Miscarriage or still birth.

Under a symbol indicates that the individual was in
some public institution.

In the first the digit shows the number of persons
represented by the symbol, i. c., two normal men.
In the second the digit shows the number of chil-
dren, x. c a feeble-minded woman had three
children.

d. Died.

d. inf. Died in infancy (under 2 years).

A

B

C

D

E

G

Alcoholic — meaning decidedly intemperate, a drunkard.

Blind

Criminalistic

Deaf

Epileptic

Goitre

1 Insane*

M Migrainous

Neu. Neurotic
Par. Paralytic

Sy Syphilitic
Sx Sexually immoral
T Tuberculosis
W Wanderer, tramp

HEREDITARY FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS*

3rd HUSBAWg

D-

TEBLE-niNDED
9R INSANE”

o

•WASTEFUL"’

ILLEGITIMATE

WORTH* “CRAZY 2 "LYING

LESS JIM” BOTH JOE”
GLUTTON ^

SHOT
HIS WIFE

THOMAS C.

— - ■ 4 YRS, «YRS- 4YRS- 3 YRS.

BOTH IN OLD OLD OLD OLD

CHILDREN S HOME APPEAR NORMAL NOW

The above chart illustrates the first great law of hereditary feeble-
mindedness ; that if both parents are blighted all offsprings will be
blighted. The family represented is plainly very low grade. It is
one of that kind found in every community, growing like rank weeds
to menace society. It is small wonder that with production like this
permitted criminality springs full-fledged into the world.

This chart is particularly interesting, showing as it does the marriage
of a normal man with, first a normal woman, and subsequently with
feeble-minded women. The taint of the feeble mind is inevitable.
Whereas the grandchildren by his second marriage appear normal there
is always the danger of their progeny being blisrhted by the taint that is
in their blood. The horror of the third marriage is too evident.

* “Feeble-mindedness; Its Causes and Consequences,” Goddard. The Macmillan
Company.

HOW TO ACHIEVE

371

to give of the best that is in you. We need the inspira-
tion of the divine that is hidden in us, we should not
crush or fail to acknowledge the presence of the still,
small voice that speaks of love and for love. Remember,
that, “By your friends shall ye be known.”

Making Resolves. — In a preceding chapter I remarked,
that every human thought, deed, act, prayer, etc., must
conform to certain laws, if by their use we desired to
achieve results. We know this is true, but we do not
always obey the rule, and in the end we wonder why
we are failures.

Psychology has formulated laws, based upon actual
experiment, regulating every department of mental en-
deavor, or every branch of systematized mental achieve-
ment. These laws show that there are fixed rules, by
which mental effort is regulated, systematized and classi-
fied, and that the human mind conforms to these laws
even when working in ignorance of them. No matter
how we may deduce facts, or reason from analogy, we
obey fundamental principles.

In a recent magazine article I read the following:

“This is my own story of why and how I rose, fell and rose
again. It would not be told but for the fact that I have
learned by an Experience mixed with some bitterness, that
all such things are governed by fixed business laws and rules
and move always in obedience to them. There is as I know,
a law of failure and a law of success. There is even a law of
mediocrity. Every man is controlled by that one of these
three laws which he elects to invoke and to follow.”

The laws, themselves are fixed and unchanging; man is
the only variable unit in the equation. He succeeds, he fails
or he slumps into mediocrity according to the law with which
he voluntarily or by predisposition puts himself in harmony.
This is my belief, based on my own adventures with these
laws and my observation of other men who have dined and
lived with them on intimate, though not always friendly
terms.”

This was written by a successful business man in an
article reviewing the “ups and downs” of his business
experiences^ It does one good to read such confessions.
To the thinking individual it suggests the need of serious,
whole-souled, conscientious effort. If these laws exist, —
as they most certainly do,— what is the use of trying to

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achieve results in a wrong way? Why not conform to
these laws and concentrate our effort in the right direc-
tion? A prodigious amount of energy is wasted in ef-
forts to beat the game. One may scheme and contrive
until all ambition withers and hope fades, but no one
will ever find a satisfactory substitute for hard work.
Many lives have been frittered away in the foolish at-
tempt to find the “easy road.” It is doing the little things
of life conscientiously that counts. The humble hen does
one thing well. She lays eggs to the extent of three
hundred million dollars per year, in this country alone.
If we combine her egg yield with her chicken industry
we find her harvest yields the enormous sum of six
hundred and twenty million dollars per year.

We are precisely what we deserve to be: we fit for
what we are fitted for. Weaklings are sent to the rear,
fighters are always in front.

The young wife may resolve to win; it depends upon
how she begins to mold herself for larger possibilities.
If she cannot succeed in small things she will not fit
when the task is bigger. Suppose you resolve to be
considerate and agreeable to every soul you meet for one
month. For one month you will subject yourself to
a rigid test, you will be considerate and agreeable, no
matter what the conditions are or the provocation may
be to break your word.

It is a fact that most failures are directly attributable
to laziness rather than to lack of ability or poor health,
or any other cause. It is the most difficult thing in the
world for some people to exert themselves to “make the
effort” to succeed. They just do enough, to. “hold their
job,” or to earn a living, though the possibilities around
them are rich in promise. Many know what they ought
to do, but they don’t seem to be able to do it. Their
ambition is lacking; they elect to travel the road to

failure. .

If the young wife resolves to be considerate and agree-
able for one month, she is the right kind of young wife.
The right impulse is working within her. The very fact
that she makes the resolve proves this. Most people are
influenced by two motives, necessity and pleasure. They

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373

work because they have to work to exist. But a great
deal of the work is indifferently done. The woman who
skims over her household duties in a disinterested and
frequently slovenly way, will spend much thought and
a great amount of time to excel in appearance and in at-
taining results at a church fair, for example; or she will
work assiduously sewing every afternoon and evening on
dresses, etc., to shine during a two weeks’ vacation at
the sea shore, while her husband is being indifferently
fed and her home all but neglected. To attain pleasure
one will actually work efficiently though the method and
the motive may be ethically wrong. So, when a young
wife actually resolves to do something which has a high
moral significance and which she is not compelled to do
she is being actuated by the right kind of principle, she is
following the law or instinct of success.

The Formula of Success.— -Successful men and women
are frequently asked to give their formula of success.
There is no formula of success except hard work.
Every successful man or woman is a hard worker. There
is no exception to this rule. We often personally know
of men or women who ‘‘rise in the world” and sometimes
we look upon them as lucky dogs, and wonder why
fortune does not favor us. If we analyze the daily life
of these seemingly lucky individuals we will find that
they plan and work and scheme while you and I play and
amuse ourselves. They have a certain system which they
adhere to under all circumstances. They have worked
hard so long that it has become a habit, — a habit that
brings happiness and success. All of them, have had
their ups and downs, their worries and battles, but they
have faced them in the front ranks, they have never be-
come discouraged, they have been inspired and impelled
by the conviction that some day the tide of battle would
change. On that day they were determined to be ready
and willing to take advantage of the turn of the wheel
of fortune.

Study the work of the next successful man or woman
you meet, and see if the rule does not hold true. It isn’t
the kind of energy that is generated that makes the
distinction between success and failure : it is the way in

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which the energy is used. To win means concentration
of energy ; let the energy be dissipated over many things
and failure becomes a certainty. There isn’t a really
successful man or woman in existence who does not de-
serve success, and who has not worked hard for it.

Success, fame, and the efforts of friends may not give
us the happiness v/hich we yearn for, but there is one
thing that will always steer us safely into port — one thing
that will bring us the blessing of happiness though all
things else fail us — and that is hard work.

When Fortune Knocks. — Fortune is said to knock at
the door of every man once in a lifetime. That once is
all the time, for the truth is that fortune is knocking at
our doors every day. The trouble is that we are not
prepared to take advantage of her importuning habits.
Fortune has her laws, and we cannot enter her chariot
except by obeying these laws. The young wife who re-
solves to be considerate and agreeable for one month is
obeying one of her laws, because, if she keeps her
promise, she will have learnt more than she ever did in
any preceding month of her experience. She will find,
for example, that people are really more amiable and
agreeable than she ever thought they were; that, because
of the restraint she is exerting on her temper and self-
control, she is growing stronger temperamentally. She
has more patience, and she is more thorough in little
things ; her environment is enlarging and life is more in-
teresting. The month’s experience will teach her some-
thing of her own capabilities and resources, and she will
be so interested and encouraged that she will determine
to experiment more and in other directions. She is ex-
periencing the psychology of character building — the
most fascinating study of that most fascinating riddle,
human nature. Fortune always favors the brave — it will
favor her because she is working in the right direction —
she is obeying the law of success.

To resolve is to obey — to know what you want, to
desire to succeed, to be willing to sacrifice self, to attain
results, to smile at adversity, to be patient, truthful,
honest, unselfish, sympathetic, in short to work hard
every minute and all the time.

CHAPTER XXVI

“Habit is a cable: we weave a thread of it each day, and it
becomes so strong we cannot break it.”

Horace Mann.

SPARE MOMENTS

The Study Habit— The Germ of Self-culture— Millions of
Tiny Cells in Our Brain — The Economic Value of the
Study Habit— Two Ways of Gaining Knowledge— Hap-
piness in the Company of Those Striving for Higher
Ideals — A Young Wife’s Incentive to Self-culture — The
Difference Between Moral and Mental Disloyalty— The
Study Habit Creates Its Own Interest— Nosophobia, or
the Dread of Disease — Keep Still and Be Well.

The Study Habit.— Every individual differs from
every other individual according- to his habits. The
nature of our habits fixes our status in the struggle of
life. If we get into the habit of thinking evil thoughts,
we live in that atmosphere. Health is a habit, so also
is success. Honesty, virtue, vice, procrastination, con-
tentment, fault-finding, grumbling, candy eating, gossip-
ing, drinking, sleeping, religion, friends, life itself, are
habits. Life is what we make it. “ As the man thinketh
in his heart, so he is.” Some habits are good, others are
bad. Certain habits are constructive, others are destruc-
tive. If we get into the habit of doing our work thor-
oughly and regularly, according to some definite system,
we encourage the habits of contentment, calmness, effi-
ciency, and happiness. If we do our work spasmodically,
irregularly, without system, if we gossip between times,
we are eternally trying to catch up, so we encourage the
habits of procrastination, discontent, inefficiency, fault-
finding, and failure. We must be master or victim of
our habits. We must succeed, or we must fail. The im-
mutable law of life permits of no standing still. We
are either progressing or we are retrogressing. One of
the best habits, if not the very best, that the young wife

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can cultivate in her new home is the study habit. It
is eminently a constructive habit.

The germ of self-culture is latent in every healthy
mind. It is an exceedingly virile microbe. It may begin
as a fad but intrinsically it grows as a virtue. Environ-
ment may give it birth but its roots may not be circum-
scribed. They seek nourishment from every far and
near spring and well, and its branches spread out to the
north and south, and east and west, and its leaves suck
into its heart, health and strength and color and frag-
rance, from the everlasting sun.

In our brain are millions of tiny cells. Each cell is
capable of a single thought. When we begin as children,
we learn letters first, then words, then sentences or
thoughts. In due time we have a sufficient number of
cells, each with its photographed letter or word or
thought. From this stock we reason and think and plan.
These are the letters and words and thoughts of ordinary
life. We have millions of cells left, and the brain is a
tireless, ceaseless worker. If we keep on feeding it more
letters, more words, more thoughts, it is satisfied, but if
we stop, if we stagnate, it keeps on working, but it can
only use the words and thoughts we have given it.
Ceaselessly it rearranges these words in its effort to live.
We are feeding it nothing, its circulation becomes poor,
its vitality weak. Some day it arranges its limited num-
ber of words into a new thought, a bad thought, our
idle mind grasps the significance of the new thought, and
we give birth to a new piece of scandal, or we commit
a crime. The brain is pleased, because the execution of
the new bad impulse brought more blood, more vitality
to it, and it gets the habit of thinking bad thoughts and
conveying evil impulses. They were the product of idle-
ness of mind. And as a matter of statistical fact, all
tragedies, crimes, vices, scandal, gossip and misery are
direct products of mental inertness or idleness.

The minds of the grumbler, the gossip, the thief, the
criminal, are poor, empty, starved, wayward minds, and
their brains are small, poorly nourished, sickly brains.
The young wife with a moment of leisure who has a
starved, empty mind, is a victim of her passions, her

SPARE MOMENTS

377

surroundings and her ungoverned impulses. The young*
wife whose brain is being fed by the study habit, is self-
contained, is master of her impulses and her passions.
The mental latitude of one is limited to caprice, envy,
discontent, hate and jealousy; the other is light-hearted,
charitable, just, contented, and happy.

Shut the two in a dungeon and the owner of the
starved, empty brain will go mad. The other will find
hope in her heart, and in her brain, the children of her
thoughts will troop in, bringing solace and cheer and
courage.

From a practical standpoint the study habit has. an
economic value. It preserves health and peace of mind,
it enhances efficiency, it broadens our sympathies and
charities, and it unifies the home circle. It is an easy
habit to acquire, and it sustains its interest: it is inex-
pensive. The Carnegie libraries, correspondence schools,
the university extension plan of lectures, etc., contribute
in a large measure to its easy acquirement, and to the
success with which it may be pursued.

Two Ways of Gaining Knowledge. — We gain knowl-
edge in two ways. First, by experience, which means
mingling with people, exchanging ideas, discussing
topics, listening to lectures, sermons, talks, etc. Second,
by reading and studying. We must read and study in
order to really understand and assimilate what we learn
from experience, and what we hear discussed in lec-
tures, sermons and talks. As soon as wTe become inter-
ested in a study we begin to rise above what we may
call the everyday plane. We desire to know more, and
when we know a good deal about one subject, we want
to know something about kindred subjects, so we ex-
tend the latitude of our knowledge. It is marvelous
how the habit grows. It is not work, it is pleasure. We
long for spare moments to renew the study, and as we
experience the pleasure the growth of our mind affords,
we improve in all directions. Every cell in the brain
sends out vibrant impulses, new life, new hope. Health
means more, life has a meaning. We find happiness in
the company of those who are striving for higher ideals.
We perform even our menial tasks with more care and

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THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

with more interest, because we grasp their true meaning,
and we know that we cannot aspire to higher ideals if
we are dishonest in little things. So the study habit
makes better men and better women of us, and it adds
to the pleasure of life all the real pleasure there is in
living. The power to analyze, to conceive, and to create
are the highest pleasures mankind possesses, and they
can only be attained in any degree by education and
■cultivation.

It is not easy to explain to the average superficially
educated person the satisfaction to be derived from orig-
inal or creative thinking. One must progress far enough
in mental self-culture before it becomes a pleasure, al-
most an intoxication. Up to a certain point the acquire-
ment of knowledge is a task, an effort, a seeming self-
sacrifice ; beyond that point it is a labor of love, a pleasure,
a consecration. The crude, discordant efforts of a
child, when it first begins to acquire a musical education,
very convincingly illustrates the condition of mind of
the beginner in self-culture. The task is a toil and the
results do not stimulate further spontaneous effort. The
same child, however, may successfully pass through the
various gradations of a musical career and arrive at a
time when effort will submerge itself ; when the result
of the knowledge acquired will be so gratifying that it
will no longer be a toil ; when the study will be pursued
because of the actual pleasure it affords.

The only worthwhile thing in life is mind. If one
does not develop the mind, it is possible to live an en-
tire lifetime and not really live at all. To exist is not to
live. All the amenities of life contribute to existence,
not to life itself. To live is to create, to give, to endow.

If a book contains one original thought, it will live.
Few books contain more than one thought, one inspira-
tion. If it, however, suffuses that one thought into the
hearts of men its existence will have been justified. We
have no criterion or standard by which to judge the
ethical value of a thought. If a thought conveys an
inspiration to another and is productive of moral growth
it has life and value because it creates.

To exist is to blindly follow the primal instincts. To

SPARE MOMENTS

379

live is to think, to reason, to grow mentally. Conse-
quently we must have ideals, we must cling tenaciously
to these ideals, and, “We must know what we want.

The Young Wife’s Incentive to Self-Culture. A
youno- wife has a real incentive to self-culture if she
hopes to maintain her position in the home and in the
affection of her husband. A man has always the ad-
vantage of being actively engaged in one of the two
ways of acquiring knowledge. He mingles with people.
He gains considerable knowledge and frequently cultiva-
tion unwittingly. He grows with his business, and as
it increases he becomes more important in the community.
He mingles with keener, wide-awake business men, his
wits are sharpened, his brain must be alert and virile.
A healthy active brain grows, it is responsive, it ab-
sorbs knowledge. As he climbs higher, he wears off the
crude corners and assumes a worldly cultivation, which
men of sound business sense can adapt to suit any so-
cial exigency. The wife does not have these advantages,
and, unless she appreciates this point, she is very apt
to remain where she was when she married, so far as
mental culture is concerned. Now to be wife in a true
sense, she must be companion. She must keep pace
with his prosperity on the one hand and with his intel-
ligence on the other. The more culture and knowledge
a man attains the more critical he becomes, the more
cultivated his tastes, the more cultivation he demands.
Qualities that did not always grate upon his sensibilities
become acutely objectionable in his higher mental, state.
A man may be loyal at heart, but he resents the inapti-
tude of a wife who fails to keep the mental pace. He
is willing to give his wife the benefits of his material pros-
perity, but he cannot give her the finer evidences of his
higher mentality, because, while she may have proved
true as a wife, she failed as a companion. She fell
behind in culture. He cannot give that which she can-
not receive. The young wife should appreciate the dif-
ference between moral disloyalty on the part of her
husband, and mental disloyalty. He is the transgressor
in the first, and she is the culprit in the second delin-
quency. We must meet a situation as it exists. Moraliz-

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THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

<

ing does not change the conditions. A man and woman
may be temperamentally suited to each other to-day, and
in a few years may be wholly dissimilar in tastes. If be-
ing a wife simply implied more loyalty and domestic ef-
ficiency there could be no just cause for complaint if she
failed in every other respect, but it does not. To be a
wife more than in name, one must be friend, companion,
confidant. No one, much less a husband, selects as a
friend, companion, and confidant, an individual whose
tastes are not in sympathy with his own, who does not
understand the viewpoint, one in whom he cannot confide,
or one whose intelligence is crude. A man can obtain a
housekeeper anywhere, but he cannot buy a home-maker,
a companion, a friend, or a confidant.

The study habit will create the interest. If you once
get it, only death can take it from you. If you become
interested, no man can grow away from you, and no man
can take from you the worlds it will open up. You must,
however, begin the study habit with the determination to
acquire knowledge. You must want intensely to succeed,
and you must be willing to sacrifice self, and to work
diligently. "If you quit, it simply shows you did not
want an education, you only thought you did, — you are
not willing to pay the price.”

Nosophobia, or the Dread of Disease.-— There is one
disease I would warn the young wife not to acquire. It
is called nosophobia. It is without doubt the most serious
sickness with which any member of the human family
may be afflicted.

In another part of this book I have written the story
of the aged philosopher, who, on being asked to name
the worst troubles he had in life, answered, “I am
quite sure my greatest worries, and my worst troubles
were those that never happened.” This reply is well
worth thinking about ; it contains matter for serious re*
flection, and what makes it so suggestive and valuable is
that it can be proved true by the experience of our own
lives.

Nosophobia means dread of disease. It may astonish
many to know that such a condition is regarded as a dis-
ease, and that it has been given a name. Instead, however,

SPARE MOMENTS

381

of it being a rare disease, or an unsual condition, we find
it is one of the commonest diseases, and one of the most
easily acquired conditions. In fact, it is so easily acquired
nowadays that he have to be constantly on guard against
it. Though we may not be its victim, we have all felt its
influence at some time, and even one experience of it is
sufficient to satisfy the most exacting. It is an absolute
medical fact, that the dread of disease will render one
more profoundly miserable and unhappy, and will cause
more mental and physical incompetents than will any se-
vere, prolonged, actual sickness. People who are victims
of nosophobia are probably the most miserable and
wretched individuals on earth. This is essentially so be-
cause of the peculiar characteristics of the disease. It
is an insinuating and insidious ailment and its progress is
cumulative. When we begin to worry about our health
the germ of nosophobia takes up its habitation in our
midst and we never know7- another happy moment.

The dread of disease is probably more common now
than it used to be, partly because people know more
about it, and, therefore, have more material out of which
to manufacture dreads, and partly because a large num-
ber of people have the leisure to worry about various
symptoms and sensations that come to them, and the sig-
nificance of which they exaggerate by dwelling on them
until they become positive torments. It is particularly
those who have not much to do, and, above all, those who
have absolutely nothing to do who suffer most from the
affection. Children never suffer from this malady be-
cause pains and aches have no significance to them. The
probability of death through sickness never bothers them.
Their minds are always occupied. They are always busy,
they think only of life and of living. As we grow older,
however, we become introspective and we permit condi-
tions to favor the development of a wrong mental atti-
tude. We accentuate the seriousness of each trifling pain
and illness, and the specter of death looms up in the path
of each ailment. Soon we spend needless time in worry
and we imagine we are not as healthy as we ought to be
and that we may probably die in the near future. This
affects our temperament and our efficiency. Life is no

382

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE }

longer tolerable or attractive, and we shortly are num-
bered with the failures and the incompetents.

One of the unfortunate consequences of nosophobia is
that a victim of it not only renders her own life miserable,
but she unfortunately affects the happiness of every mem-
ber of the household. She is as a rule gloomy and morose,
and this constant depressive environment is not conducive
to the success of any effort toward creating moments of
amusement and happiness. Her presence acts as a deter-
rent and repeated failures to overcome this domestic cloud
finally result in a complete cessation of all effort. Things
fall into a rut and each member of the family seek their
various forms of diversion outside the home circle.

These^ individuals are sometimes spoken of as "trouble
seekers/’ In a sense, the term is appropriate, because
the troubles which wreck their peace of mind never oc-
cur. In the beginning there is usually some slight physical
ailment. As a rule, it is some form of nervous indigestion.
Under appropriate and adequate treatment such forms of
indigestion are readily curable in ordinary individuals, but
these patients are not ordinary individuals. They are
perverse and opinionated. They have their own ideas.
It is impossible to convince them that they are not as
sick as they imagine. They think the physician fails to
quite comprehend their cases, — that he does not recog-
nize the serious side of the ailment, and so they are
never wholly, satisfied with medical assistance. The little
incidental pains of the indigestion are indications of heart
disease to such a patient and she acts in sympathy with
this awful affliction ; the real explanation being that the
gas produced by the indigestion bothers the heart for
the time being. She is very apt to diet as a consequence,
one article after another being avoided until she is living
on a starvation diet. She fails to appreciate the fact that
she needs more nourishment, not less ; that her stomach is
in good condition, the fault being with her nerves. She
finally becomes anemic and neurasthenic and a misan-
thrope.

The young wife can readily appreciate that, to expect
domestic success and happiness under such circumstances,
would be impossible. Yet there are young wives who de-

SPARE MOMENTS

383

velop the, habit of accentuating their little pains and ail-
ments inordinately, to their husbands, on every occasion.
They adopt this dangerous means of exciting extra sym-
pathy and caressing. Some do it in explanation of their
failure to perform their household duties efficiently
a laziness plea pure and simple..

These inefficient and tricky little ladies find that it is
easy to impose upon their unsuspecting husbands, so they
proceed to work out the details to their own satisfaction.
After spending the day sight-seeing or shopping or gos-
siping, and having neglected their work and feeling tired,
they assume a becomingly abandoned position on the big,
new, comfortable couch, practice a few heartbreaking
sighs and experiment with the tear supply. . These de-
tails are arranged and timed to be effective just as. Jack
opens the hall door with the latchkey. We can picture
what follows without making any effort to dramatize the
incident. But if the reader will try to create mental pic-
tures of the frequently recurring home-comings under
the same circumstances, she will develop interesting
studies in domestic psychology as she watches the effect
upon Jack when the truth begins to dawn upon him.

It needs no oracle to assure these women that they
are traveling along a road that has only one ending. Love
is as old as the hills, and the older it gets, like the wise
old hills, a wiser old love it becomes. It exacts its price,
and its price is an equal love. There never was a love
born — except maternal love — that will sustain itself after
the knowledge dawns upon it that it is being bartered
away and imposed upon. The day of reckoning comes
in time and the dream is over.

Do not forget that the first year of married life is
the trial year — the real test of your soul-merit. During
that first year you carve, as it were, on a monument, in a
thousand different ways, the ineffaceable record of
whether you deserve success and happiness in the
struggle of life. In what should be the after-glow of
love’s young dream — the first precious weeks and months
as a young wife — no element will be more subtly dan-
gerous than the art of duplicity. Before a young wife
determines to practice deception she should fully appre-

384

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

date the inevitable consequences. If, under the mistaken
idea that she can easily deceive her husband, because “he
trusts me so,” she believes she may continue to do so with
impunity, she is the most elementary of ail silly little
fools. She has failed to observe that the great law of
the universe acts in the interest of the rich and poor, the
fool and the philosopher alike. She will become too clever
and like all fools and criminals she will give herself away.
She will wake up to find that she has been playing with
the sacred things of earth — home and a husband’s love :
that, never again can she reestablish the affection and
confidence which she has trampled upon and defiled ; that
the future is a mortgaged hope and she herself an un-
clean and unworthy thing.

Practicing the art of duplicity in simulating physical
ailments will, if persisted in, establish nosophobia. The
patient will come to believe that she is not exactly well.
She will establish the habit of feeling sick. This will
render her mind diseased and the diseased mind will in
turn suggest new and additional aches and pains, and
she will soon not know whether she is sick or well. The
dread of disease will effect its retribution and soon she
will be, in fact, an unhappy and an unsuccessful young
wife.

Modern conditions unfortunately favor the easy de-
velopment of nosophobia in young wives. Our larger
knowledge of the symptoms of diseased conditions tends
to render the analysis of localized pain more definitely
and more suggestively. Certain pains, we are told by
hearsay busybodies, mean certain serious conditions, and
the category of these diseases extends from indigestion
to consumption and to cancer. To the victim of noso-
phobia this suggestive knowledge is a constant terror and
an ever present nightmare. To the normal healthy mind
they mean nothing and suggest less.

The modern young housewife has a superabundance of
spare time. The utilization of the young wife’s spare time
is of the most momentous importance as we have pre-
viously pointed out. It is the one commodity which will
speak in the after years in words of solace and cheer or
in regret and condemnation — according to how these

SPARE MOMENTS

385

precious moments are spent. If these moments are not
spent in a way best fitted to wholly occupy the mind,
the mental attitude— to which we previously referred, and
which is conducive to the cultivation of nosophobia will
have been developed.

There are certain kindred conditions that may partly
explain, to the ordinary healthy person, the real distress
of mind into which these self-centered sufferers sink.
The fear of a thunder storm, for example, creates pro-
found dread and distress of mind in some people. The
dread of dirt, of sharp instruments, of certain insects and
animals, of darkness, of an ocean voyage, and of great
heights, are common examples of this type of mind-dis-
tress of which the characteristic symptom is an inexplic-
able and uncontrollable dread. The same system of self-
discipline and self-control is necessary to effect a cure
of these various forms of mind-distress, as is necessary
in the successful treatment of dread of disease. To none
of these other forms, however, is attached the same de-
gree of seriousness by the laity as they attach unjustly
to nosophobia. The conditions are all the same, but they
reason that the dread of darkness or dirt or mice or
height cannot possibly bring death or seriously affect the
health or happiness, while sickness and the dread of it,
means — so they imagine — pain and maybe death. Medical-
ly, nosophobia has no such significance. The condition ex-
ists only in the mind and the same effort at self-discipline
will cure the dread of disease as well as the dread of any
other possible condition. It is this element of mind, how-
ever, that lends itself to the cure of this condition by
other means than legitimate medical advice and so we
have had “ healers ” and “ miracle workers ” who have
sprung up from time to time in the history of the world,
who have cleverly taken advantage of this element in
human nature, and reaped a rich reward.

“Keep Still and be Well.” — To instruct the young
wife how she may guard against acquiring this habit, we
would suggest that she “ keep still and be well.”

When the world appreciates better the psychology of
thought, its tremendous significance will have a concrete
meaning. We are too apt to regard the thought we

386

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

give utterance to as a meaningless thing, so far as its
influence is concerned. The woman who harps upon her
ailments, who appears at the breakfast table with a de-
pressed and melancholy visage, who regales us with an
account of how poorly she slept, the nightmares she ex-
perienced, the pain she suffers, and who puts into her
inflection the poison of self-pity is an emissary of Satan.
I have seen a whole family’s happiness for the day de-
stroyed by the meaningless ranting of a hysterical woman.
Life is hard enough for all, for each of us to at least
wish each other well.

The individual who cultivates the habit of carrying
sunshine and good cheer to the breakfast table belongs
to the sort of folk who help and inspire the whole world
to a greater achievement. If one is sent away each morn-
ing from home with a cheery word and a radiant good-by
he is inspired with the virtue of success and his efficiency
is ensured.

Cultivate the art of contentment and remember that
relationship does not imply liberty; you have no right to
send out into the world a member of your family de-
pressed and miserable because of your irritability and evil
habits.

“ Keep still and be well.” If you cannot say a good
word about a fellow-being, say none at all. Don’t become
a scandal-monger. We can forgive those who talk evil
about us — they talk to hear themselves talk. The gossip
germ is born of ignorance and vacuity and breeds best in
idle minds. No one is influenced by the vaporings of
a gossip, her words die in empty air. She injures her-
self only. The loquacious pest who brings to us the tales
which the scandal-monger manufactures is the one who
robs us of our peace and is unforgivable. To dignify
the malicious intentions and idle nothings of an evil mind
by carrying them further is an expression of degeneracy
that is urgently in need of active disinfection. To vilify
another is foolish ; to repeat it, is the function of a rogue.
Your friends bring you the glad tidings of the good
things that are said about you: your enemies are those,
who, in the holy name of friendship, bring to you the
poison of evil gossip. “ Keep > still and be well.”

THE HOME

CHAPTER XXVII

“If we are eager to do something to lighten the load of
another, eager to sacrifice self; to cheer, and counsel, and in-
spire- to leave unsaid some unkind word, to forget our own
troubles in the larger trouble of a friend, we are home-
builders.” . , .

“A married woman can't decently spend her life in playing
bridge, and in running ribbons through her underclothing.
She hasn't any right just to camp on her husband’s trail.

“No woman on earth has a right to maintenance unless she
gives value received.”

DOMESTIC QUALITIES

A Good Housekeeper and Home-maker — What Constitutes a
good Housekeeper — Preparation and Selection of Meals
— Washing Dishes — Pots and Pans — Dusting and Clean-
ing— Work Cheerfully and Be Thorough— Don’t Be a
Dust Chaser — Don’t Get the Anti-sunshine Habit — Air
Your Rooms — -The Ideal Home — The Medical Essentials
of a Good Meal— What Makes the Home— Working for
Something — The Average Housewife’s Existence Is Sla-
very— What Shall We Work For — Making Ends Meet-
Rest and Recreation — Try a Nap — Get Enough Sleep at
Night — Go Out of Doors — Take a Vacation Now and
Then — Life Insurance — -Owning a Home — The Cheerful
Wife and Mother — The Indifferent Wife and Mother —
Husband and Wife.

A Good Housekeeper and Plome-maker. — If the

young wife carries out the suggestions made on the pre-
ceding pages and thereby contributes her part to estab-
lishing the material success of the co-partnership, will
she profit in any other way?

She will have become a good housekeeper and home-
maker.

Housekeeping is an acquired art, home-making is a
moral quality, an instinct. Housekeeping conducted as
an art is superfluous. Home-making is a triumph un
der any circumstances. There are many good house-
keepers ; there are few competent home-makers. House-
keeping may easily be overdone ; home-making can never
be overdone. A beautiful house is not necessarily a

389

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THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

beautiful home. Housekeeping- should be conducted with
a view to home-making and never for any other reason.
Sometimes we see housekeeping brought to its highest
perfection by the same woman who never did understand
the simplest rudiments of home-making. The woman who
becomes the victim of the housekeeping mania never
realizes it; it is an insidious art.

There can be no doubt that a well-kept house is a thing
of beauty. So also is a marble statue, but it is cold and
bloodless.

The young wife must strive to combine the two facul-
ties. She should be an efficient housekeeper in a happy,
comfortable home.

What Constitutes an Efficient Housekeeper? — An

efficient housekeeper is one who has acquired the knowl-
edge necessary to perform all the duties of housekeeping,
and who executes these duties efficiently, with the least
possible expenditure of time and labor.

It is an absolute fact that most young wives begin
housekeeping with the crudest ideas as to what house-
keeping means. It has been pointed out many times, that
many mothers bring their daughters up without instruct-
ing them in the elementary principles of keeping house.
It is nevertheless necessary to repeat this statement over
and over again, and to point out the enormity of the in-
justice done. Even if a daughter is fortunate enough to
marry a man who is capable of supplying all the help
necessary, a wife should know enough to intelligently
discern if the work is properly done. If she does not
understand the rudiments of housekeeping, and has no
help, her inefficiency may be directly responsible for
breaking up the home.

Preparation and Selection of Meals. — Thoroughness
and simplicity are the two essentials to a satisfactory
meal. If the articles are thoroughly cooked and the se-
lection simple, there is no chance for trouble. A break-
fast of fruit, a thoroughly cooked cereal with cream, a
boiled egg and toasted bread and butter, is simple and
is adequate. Freshly prepared hot biscuits sound good,
but, unless you know your oven and have had a lot of
experience, they are apt to result disastrously. Even

DOMESTIC QUALITIES

391

if you are an expert, don’t make them. They are very
bad for digestion.

For dinner, lots of thoroughly cooked vegetables, a
small piece of steak or two lamb chops, bread (at least
one day old), and good butter, a baked apple, stewed
prunes, or rice, boiled for three hours, is enough for
any one. Have your meals on time. Be sure the table
cloth and napkins are clean, and your dishes hot. Estab-
lish the habit of being cheerful at meals, of eating slowly,
and of coming to the table with a clean, fresh dress. .

Washing Dishes. — While your husband is reading
the evening paper, wash your dishes. Washing dishes is
an art. Few young wives acquire it. The secret is, a
big basin, lots of hot water, lots of soap, and a desire
to wash them clean. If you wash them clean, don’t smear
them over by drying them with a greasy dishcloth. Wash
your dishrag and drying towel every day, and hang them
up to dry in the sun.

Pots and Pans. — How they are neglected ! If you
have any pride as a housekeeper, be clean. Hot water,
soap, a cleansing powder and a little effort, and your
pots and pans will be a credit to you. Have a system.
Take time. Keep your kitchen tidy. Don’t let work ac-
cumulate from meal to meal or from day to day. It is
astonishing how lazy and dirty some women are. We
have seen young women on the street, dressed tidily and
smartly, and we have gone into the homes of these women
and have been disgusted and nauseated with their general
appearance. There is absolutely no excuse for this, and
a young wife who gets into the habit of being indifferent
is a disgrace to her sex. She cannot hope for success
or happiness.

Dusting and Cleaning. — Every home should be thor-
oughly cleaned once a week. A certain day should be
selected for the purpose. A certain system should
be followed. After it has been done a number of times,
you will devise ways and means of doing it quicker,
easier and better. New methods will suggest themselves
from time to time, so, by planning and systematizing, you
will get rid of the drudgery part, and there will be a
constant incentive present to beat your past record. You

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THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

must get rid of the feeling that it is uninteresting drudg-
ery and slavery. A woman who looks upon her work in
that light is not deserving of any better fate, and she
will not get much further. If you are one of these per-
verse individuals who resent advice; if you object to be-
ing told the truth ; if you do not want to profit by experi-
ence; if you are satisfied as you are, don’t waste your
precious time reading books. No author can tell you how
to get something for nothing; no teacher can instruct
others in anything. He can only awaken thought and
arouse impulses. The law of life is harmony. An indi-
vidual who wastes God’s precious time in grumbling and
fretting is the most pitiful object in the universe. Try
to appreciate that you are part of the divine problem,
regarding the conduct of which certain implacable laws
have been formulated. To obey these laws means con-
tinued life, health, strength, power and success ; to dis-
obey them means weakness, sickness, incapacity, unhap-
piness, discontent and premature death.

Some people learn quickly how to conserve strength,
how to systematize, how to be cheerful and hopeful and
to radiate thankfulness. From a selfish standpoint this
is the only method that pays. Some people will not see
the point. They will put it aside by some such sophistry
as : “ Oh ! it does not apply to me.” It does, nevertheless,
and probably at a later date, when the chance of achieve-
ment has withered, they will see the point through the
mist of regret.

Work cheerfully, therefore, and be thorough. Don’t
overdo it. Fussiness is objectionable, useless and un-
healthy, because it is a constant drain on nerve energy.
Some women are dust-chasers. They are eternally pok-
ing into corners with a feather duster. They chase dust
from one room to another and back again, and the sight
of a few grains on the piano makes them sick. Dust with
a moist cloth and when your dusting is over leave it and
forget it. Don’t buy a feather duster.

Don’t get the anti-sunshine fad. Let the sun in. Don’t
pull your shades down to save the parlor carpet. Your
husband would probably sooner buy another than pay
for a funeral.

DOMESTIC QUALITIES

393

Air your rooms always, night as well as day. You
cannot overdo it. Buy mosquito screens, keep the flies
out, but let the air in.

The Ideal Home.— It is difficult to describe an ideal
home, but we know one the moment we are in it. Its
atmosphere instinctively breathes the personality of the
home-maker. Its individuality distinctly differentiates it
from the ordinary impersonal home. Its housekeeping
dress is inviting ; its furnishings harmonious ; and it ex-
hales repose, and comfort, and peace. When we meet its
mistress we are welcomed in a low, gentle, cordial tone
of voice, and in a manner which radiates honesty and
unaffected simplicity. We discover the source of the un-
usual atmosphere. It is herself, the wife, the mother,
the home-maker. She is the mystery of the ideal home.
Each day her divine art grows more perfect because her
heart is consecrated to the work. She may not be sur-
rounded with material splendor. The miracle is in the
soul she possesses. Love is the magic wand she yields.
She loves her home, her children, her husband. She is
the queen mother in the paradise she creates.

We have seen that a good housekeeper may not
be a home-maker. Every home-maker, on the other hand,,
is a good housekeeper. The ideal home could not exist
unless presided over by a home-maker. A home-maker
necessarily implies being a good mother; but a good
housekeeper, who is not a good mother, will never be a
home-maker.

A good housekeeper will keep house for the art’s sake
and will resent any domestic event which upsets her
housekeeping sense of decorum, even though the event
may have splendid home-making possibilities. The mother
with the home-making instincst will invite, and aid, and
will conceive events, which, though they upset her house-
keeping routine, will contribute to the happiness and
edification of the home circle. The housekeeper’s sense
of duty ends when a good dinner is served ; the home-
maker’s real duty and incidentally her pleasure begins,
when dinner is on the table.

The Medical Essentials of a Good Meal Are: Pure
food, judiciously selected for two reasons. First, that

394

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

there may be an adequate daily variety — in order to
stimulate the individual taste and appetite; second, that
the food supplies may be adapted, in nourishing equiv-
alents, to the work and age of the diner. The food must
be thoroughly cooked, eaten slowly, and masticated with
care and deliberation. Every meal should be served and
eaten when cooked and ready. Food should never be
allowed to stand when cooked to the proper degree. Over-
done food is not desirable. The dishes should be heated
to the proper degree ; the table linen, napkins, etc., clean
and fresh ; and the family should all eat at the same
time.

A meal should never be hurried. Interesting conver-
sation is, therefore, a necessary and a commendable fea-
ture while dining. There is less desire or tendency to
hasten through a meal when one is interested or is being
entertained. The intervals between courses will be wel-
comed rather than resented under these circumstances,
and the appetite will be keener and the enjoyment
greater.

The wife and mother, who is the home-maker and con-
sequently responsible for the esprit de corps of the family,
will direct, suggest, and guide the conversation into prof-
itable and interesting channels. By thus supplying the
atmosphere necessary to the efficient eating of a meal,
the digestion and the assimilation of the food will ade-
quately take care of itself. Overeating is never a part of
any meal and should be religiously avoided.

What Makes the Home. — We know it isn't the house
we live in that makes the home. Many have lived in
humble dwellings and have carried all through life the
memory of home as a sacred legacy. Wealth does not
make a home, nor culture, nor any of the intellectual
attainments for which we may strive unceasingly. We
may have all these and yet not know the joy of “home.
“Home” conveys to every heart the same tender memo-
ries. To have known the blessings of a “home ’ is to
be fortified for life’s battles. No one can deny its im-
portance in humanizing mankind. A boy who has never
known what it was to have a home, whose substitute for
the home associations was an “institutional mother, ’ may

395

DOMESTIC QUALITIES

have all the necessary potential qualities for success, but
he will be forever deprived of the inspiration that mem-
ory of home kindles in every human souk

The secret of the sources of home is its atmosphere.
The atmosphere of home is the sum total of the kinship
and sympathy radiated by its members. It is a tangible
something which is capable of being felt, which is capable
of inspiration and which is capable of being carried away
into the years beyond, exerting a helpful influence over
the milestones of worry, and trouble, and defeat; and it
is always a fragrant, soothing, energizing influence.
Every human heart needs the memory of a home and the
presence of a friend at all times and in all places.

We must contribute our share to form the right kmd
of home-making “atmosphere/’ The two qualities whicl
are essential to this task are sympathy and peace. . 1

contributor must be more than a negative unit in the
home. It is not enough to simply desire peace a deaf
mute could fill that part. We must desire to please and
we must be an active agency working for harmony and
peace. If there is in our heart enough sincere affection
for brother and sister, father and mother, the desire to
please will be the bond of sympathy that will weather
every temperamental storm. If we are eager to do some-
thing to lighten the load of another, eager to sacrifice
self, to cheer and counsel and inspire, to leave unsaid
some unkind word, to forget our own troubles in the lar-
ger trouble of a friend, we are home-builders. We must
control our moods in the home, we must submerge the
instinct of selfishness, of impatience, of pride, and of
obstinacy. We must not be opinionated, we can many
times conform to the opinion of others in trivial matters
and preserve peace ; we thereby minister to the happiness
of others, because to give happiness is the surest way to
be happy. Temper is the sting that poisons many homes.
Its possessor is an impossible associate and will defeat
the work of the angels in the effort to make homes.

Working for Something. — At various times we have
emphasized the necessity of having definite plans, of
“knowing exactly what you want,” of “beginning wedded
life with ideals” ; in other words, we believe that to com-

396

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

bine the maximum efficiency with the greatest degree of
happiness it is necessary for all of us to “work for some-
thing.”

It is not necessary to prove that the average human
life is uninteresting; most of us know that. As a matter
of fact the average existence is a monotonous, hopeless,
dreary stretch of time, dotted at more or less frequent
intervals with physical pain and suffering, and with men-
tal sorrow and anguish.

While this is undeniably a true epitome of the average
life to-day, it is not to be accepted as the only possible
average existence. Every agency that is working for the
betterment of the conditions which surround life is help-
ing to elevate the status of the average individual. As
individuals, the question whether our life will conform
to the average, or be individualized, rests with ourselves.

The ordinary average housewife’s existence is slavery
in its loneliest and most wretched form. Its utter hope-
lessness is its most depressing feature. If we could hope
for some glint of sunshine, some day in the future when
conditions would change, some circumstance which would
give us the opportunity which we have never had, some
test of our womanhood, — anything to relieve the crush-
ing, hopeless inertia of the daily routine, — we imagine
we could go on again, hoping that things would perma-
nently change eventually. Don’t “hope things will
change.” Change them ! Don't get in a mental rut ;
don't be an “average” housewife. If you really can’t
do anything else, if things are so abjectly hopeless that
there is no other way out, if your path is leading to no-
where, start a rebellion. When the smoke has cleared
away you may see a new path to follow, and it may lead
to somewhere. It is not necessary to do this often, be-
cause the fault is usually our own, and not that of envi-
ronment or conditions, or our husbands. All we need
to do is to think things over, and begin something, and
all the other conditions will take care of themselves. The
moment we step outside the humdrum path of existence,
the moment we are curious enough to do this, there is
hope for us. A little mental fresh air will dissipate a
good many brain fogs. The instant we begin “working

DOMESTIC QUALITIES

397

for something” definite, we cease to follow in the proces-
sion of the average helpless and hopeless citizen, bo to
the young housewife we would strongly suggest that s le
“think things over” and decide what she is going to

W°Now!what will it be? Of course it will be different
with each housewife. With many it will be a home o
our own.” It may only be a piano for the children, or 1
may wisely be more insurance. Possibly you live in the
country, and you long for the social and other advan-
tages of the city. You may be a city wife and may long
for a farm in the glorious country. It may be a trip to
Europe ; or a college education for the boy ; or a musical
career for the daughter. It does not matter what it is,
the ‘fit” is the thing itself, and, having found it, the world
for you has changed. The lonesomeness, and the hope-
lessness, and the wretchedness of life have disappeared.
There is always in the future the “it” no matter how
dark and gloomy the road may be, it is illuminated at
the far end with the realized “it.” It is the bearing of
the burden of life that makes a wife, and when we have
“something to work for” we begin to live. Love is the
explanation. We don’t want the home for ourselves. We
want it for those we love, we want those we love in
the atmosphere, which I, as mother, will make in “our
home.” It is the elemental mother that speaks,— the
motherhood spirit that pours out eternally in self-sacrifice
and keeps no debit account. It is the cry of the primal
mother that echoes through all the ages and which has
kept the race sane and safe and hopeful. Having some-
thing to work for supplies the element necessary, to
cheerfulness. In the darkest moments, when everything
seems to go wrong, the thought that we can look forward
to a time when a great change is coming, when we will
move to the new home, when we go to the farm or the
city as the case may be, or when John will finish his col-
lege course and start out as a lawyer, — when the strain
of skimping and making ends meet is over we feel that
the struggle will let up and we can rest in peace for a
little while. It is sharing these burdens that counts, and
brings out the best elements of human nature. The strug-

398

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

gle of making ends meet draws the young couple closer
together, and adds that touch of divinity that is essential
to confidence and love. It strengthens character, curbs
the tendency to unnecessary expenditure of money and
time, and teaches frugality and patience. The incentive
to win out is ever present, and it is the anchor that means
final satisfaction and success.

Try to see the point. Work for something, — some-
thing worth while, and when you have once begun never
turn back. “Nothing succeeds like success.”

Rest and Recreation — A young couple should find
time for rest and recreation as well as for work. This
part of the domestic problem should be carefully and
systematically utilized, and just as faithfully carried out
as any other part. Both husband and wife should par-
ticipate in these hours of enjoyment, and the husband
should assiduously try to make of these respites periods
of real mutual benefit. No matter in what station of life
one may be, it is always possible to find congenial means
of passing many happy and profitable hours together, if
the spirit of companionship and mutual interest is kept
alive. It is the incessant strain upon the nervous system
that constitutes the real danger of home life. The strug-
gle to make ends meet ; to keep the children neat and well
fed ; to look respectable ; to provide clothing and educa-
tion ; to nurse the sick ; to tolerate gossipy neighbors ; to
put up with ugly tempers ; to meet the constant drain of
society, business, politics and religion, — the wonder is
that so few remain oi. a. Loioe the lunatic asylums.

There are certain inevitable daily happenings in the
life of every housewife that must be tolerated though
they are not pleasant. A certain number of interruptions
will come at the most inopportune moments. The chil-
dren will come in with muddy feet and walk over the
clean floor; some days the stove works splendidly, other
days it acts as if it was crazy ; the milkman is late to-day
and too early to-morrow; some days the iceman comes,
some days he stays away, and these are the days we want
him most ; the upstairs work is not quite done when cook-
ing must be begun; the grocer forgot to send the butter;
a dish or two will crack or break every day; doors will

DOMESTIC QUALITIES

399

slam; the rain begins to fall just when the clothes are
all hung out; baby needs nursing just when the pie must
be turned ; a visitor calls before the dishes are washed.
These are inevitable. The cure does not lie in some im-
possible revolution. We must rest the nerves and take
the strain off.

Try a nap in the middle of the day. Lie down and
relax even if you do not sleep. In some countries this is
a national custom. It should be a law in America. One
cannot appreciate the amount of good that can be gained
from one-half hour’s sleep. Medically it is a wonderful
rejuvenator.

Get enough sleep at night. Late hours in the home
is a bad habit and a poor investment. It affects the
health and the efficiency. One extra hour means all the
difference between frayed-out nerves, exasperatd disposi-
tions and home peace and contentment. There is a certain
fixed ratio between sleep and good nature that has been
formulated into a law by psychology. Keep early hours
and the whole complexion of life will improve.

When indoor work becomes irksome go out of doors,
try a walk. Nothing will dissipate tired-out nerves
quicker than a brisk walk. Every housewife should walk
in the open air every day of her life. It is an absolute
necessity if she hopes to retain her health and spirits.
She will be in better shape and in a better mood to carry
out her part of the daily programme.

Take a vacation now and then. Go to the seashore or
into the mountains. When a housewife is run down and
irritable ; when the disposition comes to indulge in a lonely
cry ; when she wishes she had never been born ; when the
cook stove and the children are hysterical irritants ; it is
time for a day off. The husband should find time to
take his wife into the country for a week end, even a day
at the seashore will work like magic.

Resting and recreation are necessary. If we do not
recognize this fact, and adopt the habit as a preventative,
we will be compelled to take it in an effort to cure a mal-
ady that has established itself as a consequence of the
neglect. It, therefore, is a time and money saver, and it
saves friction, and home, and maybe life.

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THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

Life Insurance. — -Every young wife should insist upon
her husband carrying life insurance upon his own life.
She should make this a part of the prenuptial agreement.
We would go further and state that a man who will not
willingly agree to this is not a safe man to marry. The
kind of insurance is immaterial, so long as it guarantees
to the wife an adequate sum of money in the event of his
premature death. The wife should regard the payment
of the premiums as one of the necessities, and should
personally know that they are promptly paid.

Owning a Home.— -It should be the hope of every
married couple to own their own home. It has been the
regret of many, when in later years they have figured up
the money which they have spent in rent, that they did
not think of this plan earlier. Nowadays, it is possible
to pay a very small sum down, and certain monthly pay-
ments, which apply on the purchase of a house. By be-
ginning this way, when the family expenses are small,
it is comparatively easy, and without any deprivations,
to own the home outright in a few years. Many couples
foolishly buy gaudy and unnecessary furniture, and live
in more expensive homes than their means justify, in
order to create an impression, when first married, which
they later regret. If part of the money, which the young
husband has undoubtedly saved, — or he should not marry,
— was paid down on the purchase of a house it would be
paid for before the extra expense which necessarily comes
with children had to be met. The plan works to the ad-
vantage of the couple both ways, because, if no rent has
to be paid out after a few years, the extra expense of chil-
dren would not then be a hardship.

The Cheerful Wife and Mother.— How many happy
memory pictures we see by simply reading the name,—
the cheerful wife and mother, — we might call her the
optimistic mother. No matter what we did as children,
we were never afraid of her. She always saw the bright
side, and if we did something wrong she never scolded
angrily ; she talked to us convincingly and made us slightly
ashamed of ourselves. If we had any plan or project
we took it to her, she listened, and she suggested, and be-
fore we knew it she had solved our problem and the plan

DOMESTIC QUALITIES

401

was possible away we would go, enthusiastic and happy,
to work out the details as she suggested, and shortly our
“party was on its way.” If any of us had an accident, —
we didn’t go home, we were afraid of a scolding, — the
victim was rushed to her, she would wash the blood and
tears away, bathe the wounded part, put on a bandage
and then take the little patient up to her room. A cake
and a story would soon have us feeling good and help us
forget our pain. Oh ! she was an angel to us. On rainy
days she found a way to amuse us, our dirty feet didn’t
count, the floor was to be washed up anyhow. To keep
in her good graces, however, we had to be reasonably
good. She told us stories, and we soon found out that
she didn’t like a mean or stingy boy, and a boy or girl
who would tell a lie she would not talk to for a week.
Her stories always proved that the mean boy, or the bad
little girl, or anyone who told lies, never had a good time,
that no one liked them, and most everybody kept away
from them, if they didn’t stop being bad. She was a won-
derful mother, and every boy and girl for miles around
knew her and loved her.

And so it is that children soon learn who their real
friends are. A home is what the mother makes it. Cheer-
fulness does not cost anything, and how much better it
is if happiness abounds. You can get infinitely more of
the confidence of a child by being gentle, and by showing
that you have his or her real interest at heart. They will
trust you more and rely upon your forbearance in the
event of anything going wrong. As we boys and girls
grew up the interest of the angel mother didn’t cease;
we met her often, and she would ask “how things were
going.” She knew exactly what each of the boys and
girls was doing, and we always told her the truth, and all
the truth. If anything did go wrong, she would know
of it from one of the others, and she would “look up”
the unfortunate one. Many times to my knowledge she
has helped another mother over a crisis ; when a boy was
about to go wrong or showed a tendency to do some
foolish thing. She did so because she “had a way” of
getting round the boy, that even his own mother did not
possess, and he would listen. A mother who can pre-

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THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

serve her own cheerfulness under all circumstances is a
jewel. The influence she wields is beyond estimation.
A radiant cheerfulness is something akin to Christlike-
ness, it is an inspiration. People who live together fre-
quently feel out of sorts in the presence of each other
without a feeling of compunction, without realizing that
they are guilty of a social discourtesy. If there is in that
home an optimistic, cheerful mother, how different the at-
mosphere is! The cross look, or the touchy word, is
quickly observed and all the power of her infectious
cheerfulness is brought into battle array and the discon-
tent is chased away, the vitriolic spirit of quarrel, slum-
bering so near the surface, is made to feel ashamed of it-
self. It shrinks into the darkness, and we begin the
day all over again, thankful that mother is so good, so
considerate and patient.

It isn’t exactly by the children that such a mother is
best appreciated. Father knows the real value of her
cheerfulness. He knows just what it has meant in the
past, and he knows what it means now. He can look
back and he can recall many instances in which the opti-
mism of his wife was the agency which turned the tide.
He knows of many business deals wherein the cheerful
advice of his wife changed his viewpoint and so changed
failure into success. He can recall many instances dur-
ing the early days of his business career when the out-
look was gloomy and doubtful, when its success depended
upon so small a matter as temperament and disposition,
when the cheerfulness, the love and tact of his wife dis-
pelled the gathering clouds, strengthened the wavering
spirit and instilled new fight, new purpose, new hope, into
the situation. Oh, yes, he knows that cheerfulness, and
optimism, and tact, and love, have a definite economic
value, but it cannot be estimated in dollars and cents. He
knows they are an asset in the domestic problem, but

they are sacred, holy, consecrated.

Cheerfulness is such a potent reality that it has a defi-
nite, concrete value. Life is a product of environment
to a very considerable extent. Our surroundings very
often dictate our attitude, and temperamentally at least
we radiate whatever spirit our environment generates.

HEREDITARY FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS*

Here is the law. The blood of the father was tainted. For several
generations it lay dormant, and then smote this little child, Bertha. It
is the terrible, the inevitable law of heredity.

<t 3 3 d-

PAJtALYSlS TUMOR

DOUBLE

COUSINS

Not so much now, as years ago, is there intermarriage. It is fortu-
nate, for the results of in-breeding are far worse in human beings than
in animals; chiefly because of man’s more highly developed nervous
system. New, pure blood above all things else is a re-energizing force
which may go far toward eventually eliminating any trace of taint.

* “Feeble-mindedness;
Company.

Its Causes and Consequences,” Goddard, The Macmillan

HOW TO ACHIEVE

371

to give of the best that is in you. We need the inspira-
tion of the divine that is hidden in us, we should not
crush or fail to acknowledge the presence of the still,
small voice that speaks of love and for love. Remember,
that, “By your friends shall ye be known.”

Making Resolves. — In a preceding chapter I remarked,
that every human thought, deed, act, prayer, etc., must
conform to certain laws, if by their use we desired to
achieve results. We know this is true, but we do not
always obey the rule, and in the end we wonder why
we are failures.

Psychology has formulated laws, based upon actual
experiment, regulating every department of mental en-
deavor, or every branch of systematized mental achieve-
ment. These laws show that there are fixed rules, by
which mental effort is regulated, systematized and classi-
fied, and that the human mind conforms to these laws
even when working in ignorance of them. No matter
how we may deduce facts, or reason from analogy, we
obey fundamental principles.

In a recent magazine article I read the following:

“This is my own story of why and how I rose, fell and rose
again. It would not be told but for the fact that I have
learned by an Experience mixed with some bitterness, that
all such things are governed by fixed business laws and rules
and move always in obedience to them. There is as I know,
a law of failure and a law of success. There is even a law of
mediocrity. Every man is controlled by that one of these
three laws which he elects to invoke and to follow.”

“The laws themselves are fixed and unchanging; man is
the only variable unit in the equation. He succeeds, he fails
or he slumps into mediocrity according to the law with which
he voluntarily or by predisposition puts himself in harmony.
This is my belief, based on my own adventures with these
laws and my observation of other men who have dined and
lived with them on intimate, though not always friendly,
terms.”

This was written by a successful business man in an
article reviewing the “ups and downs” of his business
experiences. It does one good to read such confessions.
To the thinking individual it suggests the need of serious,
whole-souled, conscientious effort. If these laws exist, —
as they most certainly do, — what is the use of trying to

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THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

achieve results in a wrong way? Why not conform to
these laws and concentrate our effort in the right direc-
tion? A prodigious amount of energy is wasted in ef-
forts to beat the game. One may scheme and contrive
until all ambition withers and hope fades, but no one
will ever find a satisfactory substitute for hard work.
Many lives have been frittered away in the foolish at-
tempt to find the “easy road.” It is doing the little things
of life conscientiously that counts. The humble hen does
one thing well. She lays eggs to the extent of three
hundred million dollars per year, in this country alone.
If we combine her egg yield with her chicken industry
we find her harvest yields the enormous sum of six
hundred and twenty million dollars per year.

We are precisely what we deserve to be: we fit for
what we are fitted for. Weaklings are sent to the rear,
fighters are always in front.

The young wife may resolve to win; it depends upon
how she begins to mold herself for larger possibilities.
If she cannot succeed in small things she will not fit
when the task is bigger. Suppose you resolve to be
considerate and agreeable to every soul you meet for one
month. For one month you will subject yourself to
a rigid test, you will be considerate and agreeable, no
matter what the conditions are or the provocation may
be to break your word.

It is a fact that most failures are directly attributable
to laziness rather than to lack of ability or poor health,
or any other cause. It is the most difficult thing in the
world for some people to exert themselves to “make the
effort” to succeed. They just do enough to “hold their
job,” or to earn a living, though the possibilities around
them are rich in promise. Many know what they ought
to do, but they don't seem to be able to do it. Their
ambition is lacking; they elect to travel the road to
failure.

If the young wife resolves to be considerate and agree-
able for one month, she is the right kind of young wife.
The right impulse is working within her. The very fact
that she makes the resolve proves this. Most people are
influenced by two motives, necessity and pleasure. They

HOW TO ACHIEVE

373

work because they have to work to exist. But a great
deal of the work is indifferently done. The woman who
skims over her household duties in a disinterested and
frequently slovenly way, will spend much thought and
a great amount of time to excel in appearance and in at-
taining results at a church fair, for example ; or she will
work assiduously sewing every afternoon and evening on
dresses, etc., to shine during a two weeks’ vacation at
the sea shore, while her husband is being indifferently
fed and her home all but neglected. To attain pleasure
one will actually work efficiently though the method and
the motive may be ethically wrong. So, when a young
wife actually resolves to do something which has a high
moral significance and which she is not compelled to do
she is being actuated by the right kind of principle, she is
following the law or instinct of success.

The Formula of Success. — Successful men and women
are frequently asked to give their formula of success.
There is no formula of success except hard work.
Every successful man or woman is a hard worker. There
is no exception to this rule. We often personally know
of men or women who ‘‘rise in the world ’ and sometimes
we look upon them as lucky dogs, and wonder why
fortune does not favor us. If we analyze the daily life
of these seemingly lucky individuals we will find that
they plan and work and scheme while you and I play and
amuse ourselves. They have a certain system which they
adhere to under all circumstances. They have worked
hard so long that it has become a habit, — a habit that
brings happiness and success. All of them have had
their ups and downs, their worries and battles, but they
have faced them in the front ranks, they have never be-
come discouraged, they have been inspired and impelled
by the conviction that some day the tide of battle would
change. On that day they were determined to be ready
and willing to take advantage of the turn of the wheel
of fortune.

Study the work of the next successful man or woman
you meet, and see if the rule does not hold true. It isn’t
the kind of energy that is generated that makes the
distinction between success and failure: it is the way in

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which the energy is used. To win means concentration
of energy; let the energy be dissipated over many things
and failure becomes a certainty. There isn’t a really
successful man or woman in existence who does not de-
serve success, and who has not worked hard for it.

Success, fame, and the efforts of friends may not give
us the happiness which we yearn for, but there is one
thing that will always steer us safely into port — one thing
that will bring us the blessing of happiness though all
things else fail us — and that is hard work.

When Fortune Knocks. — Fortune is said to knock at
the door of every man once in a lifetime. That once is
all the time, for the truth is that fortune is knocking at
our doors every day. 'The trouble is that we are not
prepared to take advantage of her importuning habits.
Fortune has her laws, and we cannot enter her chariot
except by obeying these laws. The young wife who re-
solves to be considerate and agreeable for one month is
obeying one of her laws, because, if she keeps her
promise, she will have learnt more than she ever did in
any preceding month of her experience. She will find,
for example, that people are really more amiable and
agreeable than she ever thought they were; that, because
of the restraint she is exerting on her temper and self-
control, she is growing stronger temperamentally. She
has more patience, and she is more thorough in little
things ; her environment is enlarging and life is more in-
teresting. The month’s experience will teach her some-
thing of her own capabilities and resources, and she will
be so interested and encouraged that she will determine
to experiment more and in other directions. She is ex-
periencing the psychology of character building — the
most fascinating study of that most fascinating riddle,
human nature. Fortune always favors the brave — it will
favor her because she is working in the right direction —
she is obeying the law of success.

To resolve is to obey — to know what you want, to
desire to succeed, to be willing to sacrifice self, to attain
results, to smile at adversity, to be patient, truthful,
honest, unselfish, sympathetic, in short to work hard
every minute and all the time.

CHAPTER XXVI

“Habit is a cable: we weave a threaded it each day, and it
becomes so strong we cannot break it.”

SPARE MOMENTS

The Study Habit— The Germ of Self-culture— Millions of
Tiny Cells in Our Brain— The Economic Value of the
Study Habit — Two Ways of Gaining Knowledge-Hap-
piness in the Company of Those Striving ior Higher
Ideals— A Young Wife’s Incentive to Self-culture— The
Difference Between Moral and Mental Disloyalty— The
Study Habit Creates Its Own Interest — Nosophobia, or
the Dread of Disease— Keep Still and Be Well.

The Study Habit. — Every individual differs from
every other individual according- to his habits. The
nature of our habits fixes our status in the stiuggle of
life. If we get into the habit of thinking evil thoughts,
we live in that atmosphere. Health is a habit, so also
is success. Honesty, virtue, vice, procrastination, con-
tentment, fault-finding, grumbling, candy eating, gossip-
ing, drinking, sleeping, religion, friends, life itself, are
habits. Life is what we make it. “ As the man thinketh
in his heart, so he is.” Some habits are good, others are
bad. Certain habits are constructive, others are destruc-
tive. If we get into the habit of doing our work thor-
oughly and regularly, according to some definite system,
we encourage the habits of contentment, calmness, effi-
ciency, and happiness. If we do our work spasmodically,
irregularly, without system, if we gossip between times,
we are eternally trying to catch up, so we encourage the
habits of procrastination, discontent, inefficiency, fault-
finding, and failure. We must be master or victim . of
our habits. We must succeed, or we must fail. The im-
mutable law of life permits of no standing still. We
are either progressing or we are retrogressing. One of

the best habits, if not the very best, that the young wife

S75

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THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

can cultivate in her new home is the study habit. It
is eminently a constructive habit.

. The germ of self-culture is latent in every healthy
mind. It is an exceedingly virile microbe. It may begin
as a fad but intrinsically it grows as a virtue. Environ-
ment may give it birth but its roots may not be circum-
scribed. They seek nourishment from every far and
near spring and well, and its branches spread out to the
north and south, and east and west, and its leaves suck
into its heart, health and strength and color and frag-
rance, from the everlasting sun.

In our brain are millions of tiny cells. Each cell is
capable of a single thought. When we begin as children,
we learn letters first, then words, then sentences or
thoughts. In due time we have a sufficient number of
cells, each with its photographed letter or word or
thought. From this stock we reason and think and plan.
These are the letters and words and thoughts of ordinary
life. We have millions of cells left, and the brain is a
tireless, ceaseless worker. If we keep on feeding it more
letters, more words, more thoughts, it is satisfied, but if
we stop, if we stagnate, it keeps on working, but it can
only use the words and thoughts we have given it.
Ceaselessly it rearranges these words in its effort to live.
We are feeding it nothing, its circulation becomes poor,
its vitality weak. Some day it arranges its limited num-
ber of words into a new thought, a bad thought, our
idle mind grasps the significance of the new thought, and
we give birth to a new piece of scandal, or we commit
a crime. The brain is pleased, because the execution of
the new bad impulse brought more blood, more vitality
to it, and it gets the habit of thinking bad thoughts and
conveying evil impulses. They were the product of idle-
ness of mind. And as a matter of statistical fact, all
tragedies, crimes, vices, scandal, gossip and misery are
direct products of mental inertness or idleness.

The minds of the grumbler, the gossip, the thief, the
criminal, are poor, empty, starved, wayward minds, and
their brains are small, poorly nourished, sickly brains.
The young wife with a moment of leisure who has a
starved, empty mind, is a victim of her passions, her

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377

surroundings and her ungoverned impulses. The young
wife whose brain is being fed by the study habit, is self-
contained, is master of her impulses and her passions.
The mental latitude of one is limited to caprice, envy,
discontent, hate and jealousy; the other is light-hearted,
charitable, just, contented, and happy.

Shut the two in a dungeon and the owner of the
starved, empty brain will go mad. The other will find
hope in her heart, and in her brain, the children of her
thoughts will troop in, bringing solace and cheer and
courage.

From a practical standpoint the study habit has. an
economic value. It preserves health and peace of mind,
it enhances efficiency, it broadens our sympathies and
charities, and it unifies the home circle. It is an easy
habit to acquire, and it sustains its interest: it is inex-
pensive. The Carnegie libraries, correspondence schools,
the university extension plan of lectures, etc., contribute
in a large measure to its easy acquirement, and to the
success with which it may be pursued.

Two Ways of Gaining Knowledge. — We gain knowl-
edge in two ways. First, by experience, which means
mingling with people, exchanging ideas, discussing
topics, listening to lectures, sermons, talks, etc. Second,
by reading and studying. We must read and study in
order to really understand and assimilate what we learn
from experience, and what we hear discussed in lec-
tures, sermons and talks. As soon as we become inter-
ested in a study we begin to rise above what we may
call the everyday plane. We desire to know more, and
when we know a good deal about one subject, we want
to know something about kindred subjects, so we ex-
tend the latitude of our knowledge. It is marvelous
how the habit grows. It is not work, it is pleasure. We
long for spare moments to renew the study, and as we
experience the pleasure the growth of our mind affords,
we improve in all directions. Every cell in the brain
sends out vibrant impulses, new life, new hope. Health
means more, life has a meaning. We find happiness in
the company of those who are striving for higher ideals.
We perform even our menial tasks with more care and

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THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

with more interest, because we grasp their true meaning,
and we know that we cannot aspire to higher ideals if
we are dishonest in little things. So the study habit
makes better men and better women of us, and it adds
to the pleasure of life all the real pleasure there is in
living. The power to analyze, to conceive, and to create
are the highest pleasures mankind possesses, and they
can only be attained in any degree by education and
cultivation.

It is not easy to explain to the average superficially
educated person the satisfaction to be derived from orig-
inal or creative thinking. One must progress far enough
in mental self-culture before it becomes a pleasure, al-
most an intoxication. Up to a certain point the acquire-
ment of knowledge is a task, an effort, a seeming self-
sacrifice ; beyond that point it is a labor of love, a pleasure,
a consecration. The crude, discordant efforts of a
child, when it first begins to acquire a musical education,
very convincingly illustrates the condition of mind of
the beginner in self-culture. The task is a toil and the
results do not stimulate further spontaneous effort. The
same child, however, may successfully pass through the
various gradations of a musical career and arrive at a
time when effort will submerge itself ; when the result
of the knowledge acquired will be so gratifying that it
will no longer be a toil ; when the study will be pursued
because of the actual pleasure it affords.

The only worthwhile thing in life is mind. If one
does not develop the mind, it is possible to live an en-
tire lifetime and not really live at all. To exist is not to
live. All the amenities of life contribute to existence,
not to life itself. To live is to create, to give, to endow.

If a book contains one original thought, it will live.
Few books contain more than one thought, one inspira-
tion. If it, however, suffuses that one thought into the
hearts of men its existence will have been justified. We
have no criterion or standard by which to judge the
ethical value of a thought. If a thought conveys an
inspiration to another and is productive of moral growth
it has life and value because it creates.

To exist is to blindly follow the primal instincts. To

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379

live is to think, to reason, to grow mentally. Conse-
quently we must have ideals, we must cling tenaciously
to these ideals, and, “We must know what we want
The Young Wife’s Incentive to Self-Culture. — A
young wife has a real incentive to self-culture if she
hopes to maintain her position in the home and in the
affection of her husband. A man has always the ao
vantage of being actively engaged in one of the two
ways of acquiring knowledge. He mingles with people.
He gains considerable knowledge and frequently cultiva-
tion unwittingly. He grows with his business, and as
it increases he becomes more important in the community.
He mingles with keener, wide-awake business men, his
wits are sharpened, his brain must be alert and virile.
A healthy active brain grows, it is responsive, it ab-
sorbs knowledge. As he climbs higher, he wears off the
crude corners and assumes a worldly cultivation, which
men of sound business sense can adapt to suit any so-
cial exigency. The wife does not have these advantages,
and, unless she appreciates this point, she is very apt
to remain where she was when she married, so far as
mental culture is concerned. Now to be wife in a true
sense, she must be companion. She must keep pace
with his prosperity on the one hand and with his intel-
ligence on the other. The more culture and knowledge
a man attains the more critical he becomes, the more
cultivated his tastes, the more cultivation he demands.
Qualities that did not always grate upon his sensibilities
become acutely objectionable in his higher mental state.
A man may be loyal at heart, but he resents the inapti-
tude of a wife who fails to keep the mental pace. He
is willing to give his wife the benefits of his material pros-
perity, but he cannot give her the finer evidences of his
higher mentality, because, while she may have proved
true as a wife, she failed as a companion. She fell
behind in culture. He cannot give that which she can-
not receive. The young wife should appreciate the dif-
ference between moral disloyalty on the part of her
husband, and mental disloyalty. He is the transgressor
in the first, and she is the culprit in the second delin-
quency. We must meet a situation as it exists. Moraliz-

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THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

ing does not change the conditions. A man and woman
may be temperamentally suited to each other to-day, and
in a few years may be wholly dissimilar in tastes. If be-
ing a wife simply implied more loyalty and domestic ef-
ficiency there could be no just cause for complaint if she
failed in every other respect, but it does not. To be a
wife more than in name, one must be friend, companion,
confidant. No one, much less a husband, selects as a
friend, companion, and confidant, an individual whose
tastes are not in sympathy with his own, who does not
understand the viewpoint, one in whom he cannot confide,
or one whose intelligence is crude. A man can obtain a
housekeeper anywhere, but he cannot buy a home-maker,
a companion, a friend, or a confidant.

The study habit will create the interest. If you once
get it, only death can take it from you. If you become
interested, no man can grow away from you, and no man
can take from you the worlds it will open up. You must,
however, begin the study habit with the determination to
acquire knowledge. You must want intensely to succeed,
and you must be willing to sacrifice self, and to work
diligently. “If you quit, it simply shows you did not
want an education, you only thought you did, — you are
not willing to pay the price/’

Nosophobia, or the Dread of Disease. — There is one
disease I would warn the young wife not to acquire. It
is called nosophobia. It is without doubt the most serious
sickness with which any member of the human family
may be afflicted.

In another part of this book I have written the story
of the aged philosopher, who, on being asked to name
the worst troubles he had in life, answered, “I am
quite sure my greatest worries, and my worst troubles
were those that never happened.” This reply is well
worth thinking about ; it contains matter for serious re-
flection, and what makes it so suggestive and valuable is
that it can be proved true by the experience of our own
lives.

Nosophobia means dread of disease. It may astonish
many to know that such a condition is regarded as a dis-
ease, and that it has been given a name. Instead, however,

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381

of it being a rare disease, or an unsual condition, we find
it is one of the commonest diseases, and one of the most
easily acquired conditions. In fact, it is so easily acquired
nowadays that he have to be constantly on guard against
it. Though we may not be its victim, we have all felt its
influence at some time, and even one experience of it is
sufficient to satisfy the most exacting. It is an absolute
medical fact, that the dread of disease will render one
more profoundly miserable and unhappy, and will cause
more mental and physical incompetents than will any se-
vere, prolonged, actual sickness. People who are victims
of nosophobia are probably the most miserable and
wretched individuals on earth. This is essentially so be-
cause of the peculiar characteristics of the disease. It
is an insinuating and insidious ailment and its progress is
cumulative. When we begin to worry about our health
the germ of nosophobia takes up its habitation in our
midst and we never know another happy moment.

The dread of disease is probably more common now
than it used to be, partly because people know more
about it, and, therefore, have more material out of which
to manufacture dreads, and partly because a large num-
ber of people have the leisure to worry about various
symptoms and sensations that come to them, and the sig-
nificance of which they exaggerate by dwelling on them
until they become positive torments. It is particularly
those who have not much to do, and, above all, those who
have absolutely nothing to do who suffer most from the
affection. Children never suffer from this malady be-
cause pains and aches have no significance to them. The
probability of death through sickness never bothers them.
Their minds are always occupied. They are always busy,
they think only of life and of living. As we grow older,
however, we become introspective and we permit condi-
tions to favor the development of a wrong mental atti-
tude. We accentuate the seriousness of each trifling pain
and illness, and the specter of death looms up in the path
of each ailment. Soon we spend needless time in worry
and we imagine we are not as healthy as we ought to be
and that we may probably die in the near future. This
affects our temperament and our efficiency. Life is no

382

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

longer tolerable or attractive, and we shortly are num-
bered with the failures and the incompetents.

One of the unfortunate consequences of nosophobia is
that a victim of it not only renders her own life miserable,
but she unfortunately affects the happiness of every mem-
ber of the household. She is as a rule gloomy and morose,
and this constant depressive environment is not conducive
to the success of any effort toward creating moments of
amusement and happiness. Her presence acts as a deter-
rent and repeated failures to overcome this domestic cloud
finally result in a complete cessation of all effort. Things
fall into a rut and each member of the family seek their
various forms of diversion outside the home circle.

These individuals are sometimes spoken of as “trouble
seekers.” In a sense, the term is appropriate, because
the troubles which wreck their peace of mind never oc-
cur. In the beginning there is usually some slight physical
ailment. As a rule, it is some form of nervous indigestion.
Under appropriate and adequate treatment such forms of
indigestion are readily curable in ordinary individuals, but
these patients are not ordinary individuals. They are
perverse and opinionated. They have their own ideas.
It is impossible to convince them that they are not as
sick as they imagine. They think the physician fails to
quite comprehend their cases, — that he does not recog-
nize the serious side of the ailment, and so they are
never wholly satisfied with medical assistance. The little
incidental pains of the indigestion are indications of heart
disease to such a patient and she acts in sympathy with
this awful affliction ; the real explanation being that the
gas produced by the indigestion bothers the heart for
the time being. She is very apt to diet as a consequence,
one article after another being avoided until she is living
on a starvation diet. She fails to appreciate the fact that
she needs more nourishment, not less ; that her stomach is
in good condition, the fault being with her nerves. She
finally becomes anemic and neurasthenic and a misan-
thrope.

The young wife can readily appreciate that, to expect
domestic success and happiness under such circumstances,
would be impossible. Yet there are young wives who de-

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383

velop the* habit of accentuating their little pains and ail-
ments inordinately, to their husbands, on every occasion.
They adopt this dangerous means of exciting extra sym-
pathy and caressing. Some do it in explanation of their
failure to perform their household duties efficiently —
a laziness plea pure and simple.

These inefficient and tricky little ladies find that it is
easy to impose upon their unsuspecting husbands, so they
proceed to work out the details to their own satisfaction.
After spending the day sight-seeing or shopping or gos-
siping, and having neglected their work and feeling tired,
they assume a becomingly abandoned position on the big,
new, comfortable couch, practice a few heartbreaking
sighs and experiment with the tear supply. These de-
tails are arranged and timed to be effective just as Jack
opens the hall door with the latchkey. We can picture
what follows without making any effort to dramatize the
incident. But if the reader will try to create mental pic-
tures of the frequently recurring home-comings under
the same circumstances, she will develop interesting
studies in domestic psychology as she watches the effect
upon Jack when the truth begins to dawn upon him.

It needs no oracle to assure these women that they
are traveling along a road that has only one ending. Love
is as old as the hills, and the older it gets, like the wise
old hills, a wiser old love it becomes. It exacts its price,
and its price is an equal love. There never was a love
born — except maternal love — that will sustain itself after
the knowledge dawns upon it that it is being bartered
away and imposed upon. The day of reckoning comes
in time and the dream is over.

Do not forget that the first year of married life is
the trial year — the real test of your soul-merit. During
that first year you carve, as it were, on a monument, in a
thousand different ways, the ineffaceable record of
whether you deserve success and happiness in the
struggle of life. In what should be the after-glow of
love’s young dream — the first precious weeks and months
as a young wife — no element will be more subtly dan-
gerous than the art of duplicity. Before a young wife
determines to practice deception she should fully appre-

384

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

ciate the inevitable consequences. If, under the mistaken
idea that she can easily deceive her husband, because “he
trusts me so,” she believes she may continue to do so with
impunity, she is the most elementary of all silly little
fools. She has failed to observe that the great law of
the universe acts in the interest of the rich and poor, the
fool and the philosopher alike. She will become too clever
and like all fools and criminals she will give herself away.
She will wake up to find that she has been playing with
the sacred things of earth — home and a husband’s love:
that, never again can she reestablish the affection and
confidence which she has trampled upon and defiled ; that
the future is a mortgaged hope and she herself an un-
clean and unworthy thing.

Practicing the art of duplicity in simulating physical
ailments will, if persisted in, establish nosophobia. The
patient will come to believe that she is not exactly well.
She will establish the habit of feeling sick. _ This . will
render her mind diseased and the diseased mind will :ti
turn suggest new and additional aches and pains, and
she will soon not know whether she is sick or well. The
dread of disease will effect its retribution and soon she
will be, in fact, an unhappy and an unsuccessful young
wife.

Modern conditions unfortunately favor the easy de-
velopment of nosophobia in young wives. Our larger
knowledge of the symptoms of diseased conditions tends
to render the analysis of localized pain more definitely
and more suggestively. Certain pains, we are told by
hearsay busybodies, mean certain serious conditions, and
the category of these diseases extends frorn indigestion
to consumption and to cancer. To the victim of noso-
phobia this suggestive knowledge is a constant terror and
an ever present nightmare. To the normal healthy mind
they mean nothing and suggest less.

The modern young housewife has a superabundance of
spare time. The utilization of the young wife’s spare time
is of the most momentous importance as we have pre-
viously pointed out. It is the one commodity which will
speak in the after years in words of solace and cheer or
in regret and condemnation — according to how these

SPARE MOMENTS

385

precious moments are spent. If these moments are not
spent in a way best fitted to wholly occupy the mind,
the mental attitude — to which we previously referred, and
which is conducive to the cultivation of nosophobia — will
have been developed.

There are certain kindred conditions that may partly
explain, to the ordinary healthy person, the real distress
of mind into which these self-centered sufferers sink.
The fear of a thunder storm, for example, creates pro-
found dread and distress of mind in some people. The
dread of dirt, of sharp instruments, of certain insects and
animals, of darkness, of an ocean voyage, and of great
heights, are common examples of this type of mind-dis-
tress of which the characteristic symptom is an inexplic-
able and uncontrollable dread. The same system of self-
discipline and self-control is necessary to effect a cure
of these various forms of mind-distress as is necessary
in the successful treatment of dread of disease. To none
of these other forms, however, is attached the same de-
gree of seriousness by the laity as they attach unjustly
to nosophobia. The conditions are all the same, but they
reason that the dread of darkness or dirt or mice or
height cannot possibly bring death or seriously affect the
health or happiness, while sickness and the dread of it,
means — so they imagine — pain and maybe death. Medical-
ly, nosophobia has no such significance. The condition ex-
ists only in the mind and the same effort at self-discipline
will cure the dread of disease as well as the dread of any
other possible condition. It is this element of mind, how-
ever, that lends itself to the cure of this condition by
other means than legitimate medical advice and so we
have had “ healers ” and “ miracle workers ” who have
sprung up from time to time in the history of the world,
who have cleverly taken advantage of this element in
human nature, and reaped a rich reward.

“Keep Still and be Well.” — To instruct the young
wife how she may guard against acquiring this habit, we
would suggest that she “ keep still and be well.”

When the world appreciates better the psychology of
thought, its tremendous significance will have a concrete
meaning. We are too apt to regard the thought we

386

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

give utterance to as a meaningless thing, so far as its
influence is concerned. The woman who harps upon her
ailments, who appears at the breakfast table with a de-
pressed and melancholy visage, who regales us with an
account of how poorly she slept, the nightmares, she ex-
perienced, the pain she suffers, and who puts into her
inflection the poison of self-pity is an emissary of Satan.
I have seen a whole family’s happiness for the day de-
stroyed by the meaningless ranting of a hysterical woman.
Life is hard enough for all, for each of us to at least
wish each other well.

The individual who cultivates the habit of carrying
sunshine and good cheer to the breakfast table belongs
to the sort of folk who help and inspire the whole world
to a greater achievement. If one is sent away each morn-
ing from home with a cheery word and a radiant good-by
he is inspired with the virtue of success and his efficiency
is ensured.

Cultivate the art of contentment and remember that
relationship does not imply liberty; you have no right to
send out into the world a member of your family de-
pressed and miserable because of your irritability and evil

habits.

“ Keep still and be well.” If you cannot say a good
word about a fellow-being, say none at all. Don t become
a scandal-monger. We can forgive those who talk evil
about us — they talk to hear themselves talk. The gossip
germ is born of ignorance and vacuity and breeds best in
idle minds. No one is influenced by the vapo rings of
a gossip, her words die in empty air. She injures her-
self only. The loquacious pest who brings to us the tales
which the scandal-monger manufactures is the one who
robs us of our peace and is unforgivable. To dignify
the malicious intentions and idle nothings of an evil mind
by carrying them further is an expression of degeneracy
that is urgently in need of active disinfection. To vilify
another is foolish ; to repeat it, is the function of a rogue.
Your friends bring you the glad tidings of the good
things that are said about you : your enemies are those,
who, in the holy name of friendship, bring to you the
poison of evil gossip. “ Keep still and be well.

HOW WE CATCH DISEASE

419

ment,” and who will obey implicitly the rules which the
physician, who is conversant with this particular method
of treatment, will lay down, may be assured that a prompt
response will ensue. The intelligent reader will under-
stand that this statement does not apply to patients in
the last stages of the disease. The assertion, however,
must rightly be regarded as revolutionary. It is not
what we were taught — it emphasizes, nevertheless, what
every physician already knows, that, theoretically, con-
sumption is a disease that should respond to treatment.
That we have not had greater success with it in the past,
must be attributed to our method of treatment. The
fact that most of us have had the disease, and have re-
covered, conclusively demonstrates its curability. Those
individuals who fail to recover promptly do not possess
the vitality to throw it off spontaneously. If at this
time — the real beginning of the disease — it is discovered,
and the right treatment instituted, we immediately supply
the organism with the ingredients it is deficient in and
we are justified in looking for favorable results if the
patient adheres to the instructions.

The second essential in the treatment of consumption
is an abundance of fresh, pure air. We therefore direct
the patient to remain in the open as much as is possible.
If circumstances permit him to sleep out-of-doors, so
much the better ; if not, he must sleep in a room with the
windows open to the fullest extent, winter and summer.
There are no exceptions to this rule. If it storms, the
outside blinds may be closed, but the windows must re-
main open. The city air is just as efficient for our pur-
pose as is the air of any other vicinity — the point is, to
get enough of it from a mechanical standpoint. The ad-
vantages from sending patients away, even under the old
belief, were more than discounted by conditions incident
to the new environment that were detrimental to their
progress. Now that we know it is not necessary or es-
sential to procure any other kind or quality of air than
exists in any city, all our efforts may be concentrated in
the interest of the patient in directing the “right kind of

• . . . in supervising- his conduct. In few

instances is it necessary to prescribe any medicine.

420

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

In exceptional cases the cough . may require some
sedative remedy, especially if it disturbs the patient at
night. Experience has taught us, however, that to live
twelve hours in the open air and to sleep with the
windows wide open, will do more for the cough than
any medicine we possess.

Pleuritic complications may cause pain, but this feature
is best aided and permanently relieved by fresh air also.
Very recently there were made exhaustive experiments
in this connection in St. Thomas’ Hospital, London, Eng-
land. It was decided to subject patients to open-air tests
for pleuritic pains in the course of consumption. This
particular hospital is situated on the River Thames, in
a notoriously damp and foggy part of the city; despite
this drawback it was conclusively shown that the patients
who lived night and day on the balconies breathing this
heavy, murky, damp atmosphere, were relieved of their
pains quicker, and more permanently,, than those who
were shielded in the wards of the hospital.

Inasmuch as the patient must be adequately nourished,
his cure depends upon the condition of the stomach. . It
is known that the germ works more actively in a patient
who is losing weight. When the germ is very active,
its poisons, circulating in the blood, cause fever and
fever results in tissue waste. We must therefore bend
every effort toward overcoming this tendency. If we
can get the patient to take sufficient food, and if he digests
it thoroughly, the weight will increase, the fever will sub-
side, and the tissue waste will stop. Patients must be
extremely careful, therefore, what they put into their
stomachs. Only simple, tasty, highly nutritious food
should be taken, and . digestive energy should not be
wasted on less nutritious materials. For this reason
incalculable harm has been done by indiscriminate
medicine-taking. Medicines exert a bad influence on the
stomach and those patients who take them lose their ap-
petites. Drugs should never be taken except for a definite
purpose and only on the advice of a physician. These
patients should particularly be guarded against the use
of advertised patent medicines. They are always bad,
and never under any circumstances are they of any ad-

HOW WE CATCH DISEASE

421

vantage, as is clearly shown in the chapter on “Patent
Medicines.’' Thousands of persons die of consumption
every year who would have lived had they not taken such
remedies.

The following article is sent out by the New York
Department of Health as a Circular of Instruction re-
garding Tuberculosis.

INFORMATION FOR CONSUMPTIVES AND THOSE

LIVING WITH THEM

Consumption Is Chiefly Caused by the Filthy Habit of
Spitting. — Consumption is a disease of the lungs, which is
taken from others, and is not simply caused by colds, al-
though a cold may make it easier to take the disease. It is
caused by very minute germs, which usually enter the body
with the air breathed. The matter which consumptives
cough or spit up contains these germs in great numbers —
frequently millions are discharged in a single day. This
matter, spit upon the floor, wall or elsewhere, dries and is
apt to become powdered and float in the air as dust. The
dust contains the germs, and thus they enter the body with
the air breathed. This dust is especially likely to be dan-
gerous within doors. The breath of a consumptive, except
when he is coughing or sneezing, does not contain the germs
and will not produce the disease. A well person catches the
disease from a consumptive only by in some way taking in
the matter coughed up by the consumptive.

Consumption can often be cured if its nature be recognized
early and if proper means be taken for its treatment. In a
majority of cases it is not a fatal disease.

It is not dangerous to live with a consumptive, if the mat-
ter coughed up by him be promptly destroyed. This matter
should not be spit upon the floor, carpet, stove, wall, or side-
walk, but always, if possible, in a cup kept for that purpose.
The cup should contain water so that the matter will not
dry, or better, carbolic acid in five per cent, watery solution
(six teaspoonfuls in a pint of water). This solution kills the
germs. The cup should be emptied into the water closet at
least twice a day, and carefully washed with boiling water.

Great care should be taken by consumptives to prevent
their hands, face, and clothing from becoming soiled with
the matter coughed up. If they do become thus soiled, they
should be at once washed with soap and hot water. Men
with consumption should wear no beards at all, or only
closely cut mustaches. When consumptives are away from
home, the matter coughed up should be received in a pocket
flask made for this purpose. If cloths must be used, they
should be immediately burned on returning home. If hand-

422

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

kerchiefs be used (worthless cloths, which can be at once
burned, are far better), they should be boiled at least half
an hour in water by themselves before being washed. When
coughing or sneezing small particles of spittle containing
germs are expelled, so that consumptives should always hold
a handkerchief or cloth before the mouth during these acts;
otherwise the use of cloths and handkerchiefs to receive the
matter coughed up should be avoided as much as possible,
because it r_eadily dries on these and becomes separated and
scattered into the air. Hence, when possible, the matter
should be received into cups or flasks.. Paper cups are better
than ordinary cups, as the former with their contents may
be burned after being used. A pocket flask of glass,
metal, or pasteboard is also a most convenient receptacle to
spit in when away from home. Cheap and convenient forms
of flasks and cups may be purchased at many drug stores.
Patients too weak to use a cup should use moist rags, which
should at once be burned. If cloths are used they should
not be carried loose in the pocket, but in a waterproof recep-
tacle (tobacco pouch), which should be frequently boiled. A
consumptive should never swallow his expectoration.

A consumptive should have his own bed, and, if possible,
his own room. The room should always have an abundance
of fresh air — the window should be open day and night. The
patient s soiled wash-cloths and bed linen should be. handled
as little as possible when dry, but should be placed in water
until ready for washing.

Rooms should be cleaned daily, but in order to prevent the
raising of dust, all floors must be well sprinkled before sweep-
ing, and all dusting, etc., done with damp cloths.

If the matter coughed up be rendered harmless, a con-
sumptive may frequently not only do his usual work with-
out giving the disease to others, but may also thus improve
his own condition and increase his chances of getting well.

Rooms which have been occupied by consumptives should
be thoroughly cleaned, scrubbed, and whitewashed, painted,
or papered before they are again occupied. Carpets, rugs,
bedding, etc., from rooms which have been occupied by con-
sumptives, should be disinfected. Such articles, if the De-
partment of Health be notified, will be sent for, disinfected,
and returned to the owner free of charge, or, if he so desires,

they will be destroyed. . ,

When consumptives move they should notify the depart-
ment of health. Consumptives are warned against the many
widely advertised cures, specifics, and special methods o
treating consumption. No cure can be expected from any
kind of medicine or method except the regularly accep e
treatment, which depends upon pure air, an out-of-door life,

and nourishing food. . .

Consumptives having an opportunity of entering a san

torium, should do so at once.

HOW WE CATCH DISEASE

423

When Delay Is Dangerous. — Inasmuch as it is
mother’s duty to watch over the health and the eificiency
of all members of the household, she would do well to
establish a rule to err on the safe side in every case of
sickness. That rule should be never to delay too long
in obtaining medical aid.

In nearly twenty years of active general practice I
have had hundreds of “hurry’’ calls to “come at once.
In not over a dozen of these calls did any of the cases
demand immediate attention from a medical standpoint.
Most of them, however, should have had earlier aid.
People wait too long in the hope of spontaneous recovery,
and when, instead of recovery, they realize that the
patient is quite sick, they become conscience-stricken and
send a “rush” call for the doctor. After delaying from
day to day they decide to get professional advice and
send a messenger for a physician with instructions to
“go for another if he can’t come at once.’ It is im-
perative he should come instantly, though they have de-
layed for a week in requesting his services. Every
physician has these calls every week of his life. If an
individual has survived a week’s neglect, it is quite within
reason to assume that he will survive another hour, — and
during that hour the physician may have time to
complete whatever he may be doing when the call
comes.

If you have been guilty of bad judgment in not sending
earlier for aid, don’t add discourtesy to your sins; The
world demands of us, and every person has the right to
expect, a certain degree of consideration and courtesy.
If we do not give it, we only harm ourselves because the
lack of cultivation is a detriment which limits growth
and happiness. The degree of attainable happiness is
limited by the degree of “goodness” that is in us. If
you are not considerate, depend upon it, there is an ele-
ment of happiness which escapes you, and you cannot at-
tain it till you are considerate.

It is inconsiderate and it is discourteous to send an
immediate demand for a physician “to come at once” if
there is no urgent need for his services, and if you have
just been inspired for aid after a week’s blindness, there

424

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

is no urgency in the matter. A call in an hour would
do just as well.

Take the following case: A mother discovers a small
quantity of blood in the diaper of her two months old
baby. There is a larger quantity in the afternoon and she
decides to give the baby a dose of castor oil. During the
night it slept fitfully and in the morning it has a large
stool as a result of the castor oil and there is a large
quantity of blood in the stool. She sends a “rush” call
for a physician. The physician discovers the following
facts : The baby is being artificially fed ; it has been

vomiting its food for a week; its stools have been green,
foul and contained mucus ; it had a fever for a number
of days; it has lost much weight and looked pale and
sickly. The physician obtained this history from the
mother — she therefore knew the baby’s condition. Why
did she delay sending for a physician? How sick did
she want the child to be before the need for aid seemed
justifiable to her? Why didn’t the sight of blood in the
stool suggest the need of assistance? What do the public
expect of physicians in such cases? But why ask ques-
tions ? Many mothers will doubt the existence of such a
mother as is described above. They need not ; she was
one of my own patients. I do not understand such
women ; I only know that such mothers exist in quite
large numbers. This particular mother has other chil-
dren ; she is a good housekeeper, is personally attractive,
and is thought well of in the community. If such
seemingly heartless conduct can spring from such a
source is it not evidence of the fact that the average
mother needs instruction, needs education, and does it not
bespeak the need of eugenics being sown broadcast
throughout the land?

Delays are dangerous in all sicknesses that last, despite
a thorough cleaning out of the bowels. To wait, hoping
that “things will change,” is bad practice. It is unjust
to the medical profession, and it is infinitely more unjust
to the victim.

There are two kinds of surgical operations — those of
choice and those of necessity.

Every one knows about the operations of necessity,

HOW WE CATCH DISEASE

425

most of which must be performed as a result of accident,
but few people understand the dangers of delaying what
are termed “operations of choice.” These are for such
conditions as appendicitis, cancer, and stomach and
bowel troubles.

Delaying an operation of choice lessens the chances of
living, and really makes an operation of necessity with
fewer chances of recovery than from the operations that
must promptly follow injuries.

When we feel that an operation is needed, or are in
doubt about it, the wise thing to do is to consult medical
authority. Then, if it is found there should be an opera-
tion, there is plenty of time to make every arrangement.
We can begin to diet, which is generally necessary and
there is every chance for speedy recovery.

If a man breaks a leg and it has been set badly, the
surgeons do not rebreak it at once, but allow it to heal
and the patient to regain his strength, when it is again
broken and reset properly. This is an operation of choice.

But if a terrible fracture of the leg results from a fall,
with the shattered bone protruding, an operation of neces-
sity must follow to mend torn arteries.

It has been learned through recently gathered statistics
that about thirty per cent, of the people operated on for
appendicitis die simply because they delay the operation.
This should have been an operation of choice, when every
arrangement could have been made long beforehand ; the
delay makes it an operation of necessity, with the victim
in such poor physical condition that he has not half the
strength to recover that he would have had if he had been
wise enough to consult a physician when he first suspected
that something was wrong.

These same statistics go to show that fully 99 per cent,
of the appendicitis cases, when taken in time, are cured
by means of the operation, thus affording the strongest
proof of the folly of delaying such things.

The total number of deaths from appendicitis each
year, due to delay in operating, is greater than the
number of deaths during the Spanish-American War.
There are instances where the doctors do not advise
operations soon enough.

'426

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

Above all things, when a reputable physician advises an
operation, do not think you know more than the physician,
but have the operation performed at once. Nine times
out of ten this will be the means of saving your life.

WHAT TO EAT AND WEAR IN HOT WEATHER

No faith should be placed in the so-called “hot-
weather” foods. The cereals and other manufactured
foods advertised as possessing marvelous qualities, have
in reality no advantage. Some of them have more or less
value as ordinary food, but they certainly possess no un-
usual superiority. Home cooking is the best in summer
or any other time.

Great care should be taken to keep the system in the
best possible condition. This will prove the most ef-
fectual safeguard against the heat. Some foods do not
agree with certain individuals, and these should be care-
fully avoided in summer. Every person will have to
judge for himself in this matter. Otherwise the diet
should be balanced carefully so that enough, and yet not
too much, is eaten. As much fruit as possible should be
eaten, and meat never more than once a day. It is not
well, however, to omit it entirely.

Food sustains the body through the heat it generates
chemically, and it is therefore impossible to eliminate a
certain heating effect. If the system is kept normal,
however, and the diet properly balanced, this should not
be felt. Work is performed by the body and energy ex-
pended. This must be replaced with the heat value of
food. A certain amount of fat, starch, and the other
constituents of a well-balanced diet is essential.

Fat meats and other forms of fat are the most heat-
ing of all foods and may be minimized in summer. The
amount of food necessary is, of course, largely governed
by the nature of the work performed by the individual.
Brain workers can eat very little in the morning and
during the day, reserving until evening the single heavy
meal. If they have been doing this the year around they
probably will be cooler during the morning and afternoon

HOW WE CATCH DISEASE

427

if a light breakfast and luncheon are eaten. It is not well,
however, to make any radical change from one’s regular
habits.

Manual workers require more food, and the heavy
meal had best be eaten in the middle of the day. All
three meals should be substantial. There is no danger
of eating too much if the system is not overburdened.

Not only is pork rich and fat, and therefore very heat-
ing, but it is the quickest of all meats to spoil. Veal also
spoils very quickly if not kept at the proper temperature.
Of all meats mutton has the best keeping qualities. Beef
also keeps well and is a safe meat to eat in summer.

Flies are dangerous under any conditions, but particu-
larly should they be avoided where meat is kept. The
bacteria they carry thrive particularly on meat, and there-
fore are apt more rapidly to multiply than if deposited on
some other food. Care should be taken to buy meat only
from places where adequate protection is provided against
flies.

It is of the greatest importance to keep the meat at a
uniform cold temperature. It should not be allowed to
become heated, and then cooled again. Some meat shops
still keep the meat on open counters or hooks and replace
it in the refrigerators at the close of the day. These
shops should be carefully avoided. Modern methods
provide glass-covered refrigerating counters which keep
the meat cool while it is on display.

Meat should be kept at as low a temperature as pos-
sible. The ordinary refrigerator is at a little above freez-
ing and temperatures at or below zero are preferable.

Scientific Dressing. — By dressing scientifically it is
possible to minimize the effect of the heat. The heat from
the sun must be kept away from the body and the heat
generated by the body permitted to escape. These results
can best be accomplished by having the clothes very loose
fitting, so as to leave ample air space, and by having the
outer clothes of a good non-conductor of heat. The cloth,
of course, should be as light in weight as possible, but it
is more important to have it a good non-conductor of heat
and of porous weave.

Not enough attention is paid to the selection of colors

428

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

for resisting the heat. Two cloths identical except in
color will show a great difference in the comparative
amount of heat they let through. Light shades should be
chosen, but care should be taken to see that they are not
glaring, so as to irritate the eye and increase the mental
effect of heat.

Linen and silk are better non-conductors than wool.
And the weave of a cloth has a great deal to do with the
amount of heat it lets through. Smooth, hard weaves
absorb much less heat than fuzzy weaves. For this rea-
son, serge is much cooler than worsted of the same shade
and weight. A mistake is often made, however, in getting
serge of a dark blue. It should be of as light a color as
possible ; gray is much cooler than blue. A white serge is
much cooler than white flannel, because it is less fuzzy.

Linen is much cooler than woolens, because it is a better
non-conductor and is of more porous weave. The linen
thread is rough, which causes inequalities in the weave,
permitting a more thorough circulation of air. Cotton is
a still better non-conductor than linen, and would be
preferable for summer clothes but for the fact that it
neither wears nor holds its shape so well.

Mohair is very light in weight and cool looking. As a
matter of fact, however, it is a fairly good conductor of
heat, is closely woven, and usually comes in dark shades.
It is a woolen cloth, and any woolen has its threads
woven more closely on account of the process of manu-
facture than linens, cotton, and silk cloths. Linen is per-
haps the best material for summer wear. It is porous in
weave, light in color, and of fairly light weight.

It is well to remember that the safety valve of the body
in hot weather is the evaporation of perspiration, not the
act of perspiring. If the hand is put in a glove, for in-
stance, it will perspire much more than if in the open air,
but it will not be as cool. It is the evaporation that is a
cooling process. If the perspiration is absorbed it cannot
evaporate. That is why loose fitting undergarments are
cooler than tight ones. It is also the reason why cotton is
cooler next to the skin than linen or silk ; it absorbs mois-
ture less freely.

Drink Plenty of Water. — Water, and a great deal of

HOW WE CATCH DISEASE

429

it, is desirable at any time during the summer. It should
be drunk freely during the day. Lemonade also is good,
the slight acid being an aid to digestion. It is best to have
beverages cooled only to a moderate temperature. Ice
water is not bad, but it would be preferable if it were not
at so extreme a temperature. Ice is resorted to only as a
convenient means of securing a palatable temperature ; the
system does not crave extreme cold. Water at the tem-
perature of the air is nauseating, so ice is put into it and
the other extreme secured. Sixty degrees is the ideal
temperature for drinking water. If this could be con-
veniently obtained it would be preferred to a greater
degree of cold. Not only is it less harmful to the system,
but it is more satisfying and thirst-quenching. Water
put in bottles and left in a refrigerator until properly
chilled is the best way of preparing a summer beverage.
When any beverage is sufficiently cold to cause a pain
in the head or throat when drinking it the result may be
harmful. Cold water poured on the wrist or head has a
cooling effect and tends to reduce the ice water habit.

If one could afford it it would be well to drink nothing
but mineral water in the summer. Not only does it assure
purity, but the gas is an aid to digestion and serves to
render the water more palatable. This results in more of
it being drunk than if it were flat water, and it is desirable
to drink as much water as possible in hot weather. By
mineral water I mean carbonated bottled waters intended
for table use. Care should be taken that the water is only
lightly impregnated with salt.

It is much safer to drink a well-known water. The
water may not be bottled at the spring or it may be bottled
under unsanitary conditions. In many cases mineral
water is not all that it should be in cleanliness. Unless
one is sure of the purity of a bottled water good hydrant
water supplied through the city pipes is safer.

In traveling, however, and at summer resorts it would
be well to drink nothing but mineral water of a well-
known brand. Only by doing this and by being certain
that the bottle has not been refilled can one be safe. The
water supplied on trains and in resorts frequently is not
as pure as that supplied in large cities.

430

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

On the whole, however, mineral water has no particu-
lar advantage over ordinary water except that the well-
known brands are sure to be pure, and the carboniza-
tion makes it more tasty and so increases the amount
consumed. It is much safer and more healthful to
drink a well-known mineral water than the so-called
soft drinks, many of which are unclean and harmful.

DISEASES OF WOMEN

CHAPTER XXIX

DISEASES OF WOMEN

Importance of Diseases of Women— The Beginning of Female
Disease — Ailing Women Are Inefficient — As Home-
makers, as Wife, as Mother — Few Ailing Women Be-
come Pregnant — The Chief Cause of Female Disease —
The Existence of the Average Mother — Female Diseases
Are Avoidable — The Story of the Wife — Women Who
Don’t Want Children — Abuse of the Procreative Func-
tion— What the Woman with Female Disease Should
Do — Cancer in Women — Cancer of the Breast — Cancer of
the Womb — What Every Woman Should Know About
Cancer— Change of Life — The Menopause — The Climac-
teric—The Average Age at Which the Change of Life
Occurs — Symptoms of the Change of Life — Importance
of a Correct Diagnosis — Danger Signals of the Change
of Life — Conduct During the Change of Life.

No conscientious physician can give thought to this
subject without being profoundly stirred. It may justly
be said that all types of disease affecting the general
health, the happiness, and the efficiency of the people are
equally important, and should elicit the same degree and
quality of kindly consideration. For many reasons this
is not so, as I will endeavor to show. The dominating
reason which renders diseases of women an exception to
this rule may be mentioned here, however, so that the
reader will keep its supreme significance prominently
in mind while considering the subject in its various other
aspects. ‘‘Diseases of women” rank first as a eugenic
problem. They have a direct and far-reaching influence
on posterity. They affect the environment of the home
and thereby the health and the efficiency of all concerned.

The diseases which form the basis of the statements in
this article are as follows: leucorrhea, displacements, or
malpositions of the internal organs; lacerations, ulcers,
tumors, sexual incompetency, and the venereal com-
plications.

4S3

434

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

It is not possible or desirable to tabulate the symptoms
which result from these conditions. They would not
convey to the average individual a just picture or an in-
telligent summary of the life of a victim of these ail-
ments. An actual description of the life of a patient will
be more effective because it will depict the incidental,
domestic atmosphere in which most of these patients
live.

The Beginning of Female Disease. — When a woman
first begins to feel the effects of so-called “female weak-
ness” she is conscious of not feeling “fit.” She wonders
what the matter is. She may not have actual pain at this
time, simply the consciousness that “she is not what she
used to be.” Her work seems harder and more tedious,
she worries without cause, she begins the day with less
energy and ambition than she used to, her disposition
is more uneven, more irritable and she tires easier and
is more willing to retire earlier than formerly. After
a time she has more or less undefined pains. It may be
an occasional headache, or backache, or she may have
various severe neuralgic twinges. She gets nervous and
moody ; her appetite is not good and she is troubled with
constipation. A little later, the general condition grow-
ing worse, her nervous system suffers most. So she
drifts into neurasthenia and has fits of crying and periods
of melancholia. She is more irritable, more impatient,
more dissatisfied with herself, her family, and her friends.
She loses faith in herself, in the future, and even in her
religion, and she may contemplate self-destruction.

There are thousands and thousands of just such women
in the world, and the pity is that many of them are
mothers. It is surely self-evident that these women must
be failures as efficient factors in many ways.

AILING WOMEN ARE INEFFICIENT

First of All as Home-makers. — No woman can pos-
sibly be expected to successfully conduct a home if she
is not enjoying a reasonable degree of good health. A
home inefficiently supervised is an instrument for evil.
It engenders discord and discontent, and it is lacking in

NEUROPATHIC ANCESTRY*

From a first glance at the chart it would appear that Daniel was
an accidental case of feeble-mindedness. His progenitors were, how-
-sver decidedly neuropathic. The presence of apoplexy, paralysis,
alcoholism in a family should be watched for with vigilance because
of their possible effect upon the nervous system of the offspring.

Parents would do well to scrutinize the man who “led a fast life”
.efore allowing him marry their daughter. The world would be
hocked if it knew how many men with disease enter into conjugal

robablv J?® S f*T hadf s,yphil,> David’s feeble-mindedness was
rouaDly only one of the awful results.

:ompFaney.le‘rnmdedneSS; ItS CaUSes and Consequences," Goddard, The Macmillan

DISEASES OF WOMEN

435

the spirit which is essential to the cultivation of good-
fellowship and which encourages harmony.

As Wife. — Most men resent the burden and the dis-
comfort and the expense of an ailing wife, no matter how
well-intentioned they may be. It is a failing of the male
species to be cursed with the inability to understand any
type of nervousness in a wife. Being inexplicable to
him he attributes the symptoms to an evil imagination or
to a bad disposition. He believes he is being imposed
upon and proceeds to resent it. Many homes are ren-
dered permanently miserable and unhappy by a failure to
comprehend the real source of the trouble and to apply
the remedy. Being inefficient as a home-maker the wife
is not able to carry out her part as housekeeper. The
home atmosphere is wrecked, the husband seeks com-
fort and congenial fellowship elsewhere. His efficiency
is compromised and his earning capacity interfered with.

As Mother. — Anyone familiar with the exacting ob-
ligations and responsibilities of motherhood can well ap-
preciate that normal health is an essential requisite to
its successful consummation. The success of motherhood
depends upon the proper exercise of many diversified
qualities, and those in turn primarily depend upon an
adequate degree of physical fitness, otherwise failure is
certain to ensue. A woman, therefore, cannot exercise
her function of motherhood if she is a neurasthenic.

Inasmuch as it has been proved that the regeneration of
the race is dependent upon the maintenance of mentally
and physically fit mothers, any condition that interferes
with this standard is contrary to the eugenic requirement.
Children sent out into the word unfit physically or mor-
ally are factors detrimental to the best interests of so-
ciety and to their own progress and prosperity. A mother
rendered incapable through sickness is, therefore, a
menace to the home and to the eugenic promise.

Few Ailing Women Become Pregnant. — Nature for-
tunately seems to apprehend the true condition because
few of these women become pregnant. This suggests an
inquiry into the cause, or causes, underlying this un-
fortunate situation.

Are women responsible for these ailments?

436

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

Most married women whose health is broken down by
some disease peculiar to their sex refer the commence-
ment of their suffering to a confinement or premature
birth. The large majority of those women whose health
is affected, because of some “female weakness,” suffer
from a displacement, or malposition of the internal or-
gans, and as this condition is most frequently a product
of maternity, there would seem to be some reasonable
degree of justification for the assumption that the
wrecked health is the result of a legitimate physiological
act, and consequently a natural phenomenon. This is
not, however, altogether true. A displacement is not,
under any circumstances, a natural process. It is the
result of causes which are avoidable. Most of them are
the penalties imposed by nature because of the infraction
of her laws. We will not consider those causes which
have their beginning in wrong methods of dress or con-
duct during the years prior to maternity. Many such
cases exist, but they are too few in number to justify
consideration at this time. They are frequent enough,
however, to suggest to mothers that it is always wise
to keep a close watch over the tendencies and conduct of
their daughters.

The Chief Cause of Female Diseases. — When a wom-
an has given birth to a child her womb begins to con-
tract and in a very brief space of time will resume its
normal position, provided nothing interferes with the
process. Nature will do exactly what is right if she is
permitted to work in her own way. In another part of
this book I have explained why it takes time for the re-
cently pregnant womb to contract to its normal size.
There is a 600 per cent, increase in volume to be got rid
of by absorption. This takes time and nature can not be
hurried without “taking chances.” This is just where
the “cause” exists which we have been looking for.
Women do take chances.

Every woman should stay in bed for at least three
weeks after confinement and should spend another three
weeks convalescing before she assumes any domestic
duty. This is a reasonable proposition when one con-
siders the actual situation. There is an enormous amount

DISEASES OF WOMEN

437

of readjustment to be undertaken, and there is no way
of hastening this process. There is, however, a way to
assist nature and to prevent mistakes. That way is to
remain in bed a sufficient length of time to allow proper
contraction of the womb. While the ligaments and
muscles are still lax, to not undertake any muscular effort
that will overtax or overstrain them, — a condition that
favors displacement by weakening the support of the
womb. A woman cannot understand why she should
stay in bed when she feels well enough to get up. It is,
however, unjust to censure the sex on this account. I
am convinced the fault lies with the medical profession
who do not take time to explain, in language which a
woman may understand, the important reasons why they
should stay longer in bed despite the fact that they do
feel well.

The Existence of the Average Mother. — In consider-
ing this subject it is necessary to give some serious
thought to the domestic and financial circumstances of
the thousands and thousands of average mothers. Every
observing, thinking person knows that the average moth-
er s existence is more or less of a never-ending tragedy.
Physically, mentally, and spiritually, they are victims
of unalterable economic and social exigencies. They are
compelled, because of ignorance, to live an unsanitary
and unhygienic existence. The care of home and chil-
dren, and maybe the unappreciative and inconsiderate
attention of a careless and vindictive husband, add to the
incidental worries, — fraying her nerves and disposition,
— of the ordinary, routine of a cheerless, hopeless life.
Add to this experience the enormous drain of frequent
child bearing upon her vitality, and we have a picture
with which every physician is familiar.

Can such a woman possibly observe the essential rules
of the hygiene of pregnancy? Has she the time and
the means to build up her reserve energy and strength
to competently undertake the duties of maternity or
motherhood? Is she physically fit to give birth to a
child? After it is all over can she devote the time to
permit nature to do her share of the physical readjust-
ment? Can she afford, or will she be permitted to remain

438

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

in bed long enough to allow conditions to be favorable
to getting up without “taking a chance”? Inasmuch as
her muscular tone is poor, her strength depleted, her
vitality wasted, her ambition and hope at a low ebb,
nature should be given a longer time, under the most
favorable hygienic and domestic conditions, to help in
the problem of readjustment, because her whole future,
as an efficient machine, as wife, as mother, as home-
maker, and as an economic individuality, is dependent
upon how this crisis is met. This is the most important
problem which an enlightened civilization has be i ore it.
It is the supreme eugenic task, and it is the most press-
ing and the most vital question for statesmen to solve.
No man can deny that the permanency of the state is
dependent upon the function of motherhood, yet mother-
hood is conducted by unskilled labor— labor, the quality
of which no business would tolerate. We also know
that the health of the workman has become an economic
problem. Capital finds that labor is of better quality,
and consequently more remunerative in every sense, if
the environment is conducive to happiness and health.
Yet motherhood, the most important labor in the world,
upon which the very existence of the state depends, in
addition to being performed by unskilled labor, is under-
taken by physically unfit and frequently unwilling la-
borers, in an environment which is a disgrace to civiliza-
tion and which cannot be duplicated in the whole realm
oi the brute world. This is the quality of labor, the
products of which constitute the state.

If anyone is disposed to believe that this is an over-
drawn picture, let him study the facts brought out in the
recent patent medicine investigation. It was found that
one small, unimportant, quack medical company had
under treatment at one time (the day the government
closed it up) 200,000 women, suffering exclusively from
female diseases. How many similar cases must there
be to support the large advertising concerns, whose ten-
tacles reach to the remotest corners of the country an ^
who limit their activity and cater to “diseases of women
only. Let him also give some thought to the fact that no
specialty in the whole field of legitimate medical prac-

DISEASES OF WOMEN

439

tice has grown with such enormous strides, or is as
remunerative to the ordinary physician as the department
of “diseases of women.”

Female Diseases Are Avoidable. — If, as has been as-
serted, the great majority of these ailments are traceable
to causes which are avoidable, what is the remedy? In
one word it is “Enlightenment. We must educate tne
ordinary mother who is so busy over her wash tubs and
babies that she has no time to seek information upon
subject which she doesn’t even know exist, who does
not even know how to feed her baby as well as the scrub-
biest cat does her kitten, who does not know what
eugenics means and is interested in it. even less. We
must stop limiting our talks to theorizing in clubs and
societies. We must carry the tidings to the firesides of
those hundreds of thousands of women who would listen
and act, but who do not know what to do or how to
correct their faults.

There is another feature of this subject which should
be recalled in this connection. It has already been gone
into in detail in the article on eugenics. There are many
thousands of women who are compelled to fight the
battle of life, upon whom an unjust disease has been
grafted, which is sapping their strength and vitality, and
which they do not appreciate or understand. Husbands
infect wives unwittingly, wreck their constitutions, blast
their hope of ever having a child, and then heap upon
them abuse for an inability for which they are them-
selves directly responsible. Many homes are desecrated
in this way and the real culprit is never suspected. Many
women, who begin their married life under the most
auspicious conditions so far as physical fitness or tem-
peramental quality is concerned, have their health, and
happiness, and success utterly ruined, and after spend-
ing a miserable, wretched existence, have their hope of
maternity forever blasted on the operating table. The
story of “the wife” has never been told. It is God’s
riddle.

Women Who Don’t Want Children.- — Sometimes the
woman is at fault. Many young wives begin married
life with the intention of not having a child for a year

440

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

or two. They don’t want to be tied down too soon.
They want some fun themselves. They are willing to
become the legal mistress of a man, but they are not
willing to assume the responsibilities of married life. It
is difficult to understand the ethics of this type of moral-
ity. I have always given these young wives credit with
simply not knowing what they were doing. Either
their education or their common sense is lamentably
deficient, or what is still worse, their mother was the
wrong kind of a woman. If these unfortunate young
wives have no regard for the cultivation of a good con-
science, they should at least have some regard for their
own health. From a purely selfish standpoint, — the
standpoint of efficiency and success, — one would imagine
these women would be unwilling to risk their whole
future physical welfare on the chance of immunity — and
it is a small chance.

Abuse of the Procreative Function. — In order to carry
out this programme, various means are brought into
requisition. In many cases I have known the wife has
compelled the husband to wear devices which rendered
conception impossible. This is a highly reprehensible
procedure. If continued for any length of time it will
seriously affect the husband’s nervous system and gen-
eral health, as this act is simply a form of self-abuse.
Any husband who will tolerate such imposition is be-
ginning married life wrong. He will pay a high price
for his complacency. Any woman who suggests or
acquiesces in such an arrangement is a moral degenerate
and is absolutely unworthy of ever becoming a mother.

Some women buy expensive and fantastic syringes and
proceed to abuse themselves with strong antiseptic solu-
tions. This will result in killing the sensitiveness of the
terminal nerves and end in depriving themselves of the
pleasure with which a wise Providence endowed the
procreative act. If the element of sexual incom-
petency enters the home of a young couple, it is the
beginning of the end and each chapter of the story will
be a worse hell than the one just ended. The wise hus-
band will see that its cause will not be tolerated or begun
in his family.

DISEASES OF WOMEN

441

If pregnancy should unwittingly occur they do not
hesitate to adopt drastic means to “bring themselves
around.” They will procure some prescription which
may have gone the rounds as a “marvel ’ but which al-
ways fortunately fails when they need it most. Thus
they subject their system to the shock of violent medica-
tion and lay up for themselves in the future untold
miseries. If these means fail, they go to “a woman whom
they know” who “brings them around.” If these young
wives only knew what they were doing they could not
be bought at any price to submit to such surgical trage-
dies. The least probable result will be that when the
time arrives and circumstances are opportune to have a
baby, and when it is their dearest wish to be a mother,
they will discover that they no longer possess the ability to
conceive. Many homes have been rendered childless in
just this way. You cannot violate the laws of nature
without paying the penalty in some way, and it is usu-
ally a sad reckoning.

What the Woman With Female Disease Should

Do. — To those wives who are suffering with “female
weakness,” or who are in poor health without apparent
or known cause, I would strongly advise a visit to their
family physician or to an expert in diseases of women.
Tell him exactly how you feel and submit to a thorough
examination. Most of the diseases of women are read-
ily curable, and if treated right all the symptoms which
have rendered life miserable will disappear. It may
be stated with the strongest emphasis, however, that no
treatment from an advertising concern, or any patent
medicine ever made, will in any sense cure any of these
ailments. Every cent invested in any of these nostrums
is money wasted. Medicine by the mouth is never neces-
sary to affect a cure of the actual ailment. A physician
will doubtless prescribe a tonic for your general run-
down condition. But even this would totally fail if the
cause of the ill health was not removed, and this neces-
sitates an examination and special local treatment. For
any advertising concern to assert that it can tell what
ails a patient by simply filling out a symptom blank is
Utter nonsense. It is worse. It is obtaining money under

442

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

false pretenses, and should be punishable by imprison-
ment at hard labor for a long term.

CANCER IN WOMEN

My only object in referring to this disease is to direct
the attention of women to its symptoms.

The only cure for cancer at the present time is the
knife. If the disease can be reached it can be cured, if
taken in hand early.

In women, cancer occurs most frequently in the breast
and in the womb.

Cancer of the Breast. — Of all the tumors which affect
the breast cancer is the most frequent. Any tumor in
the breast of a woman forty years of age or more is
quite likely to be a cancer. A tumor (or lump) which
has remained small for years and then begins to grow
rapidly has changed its type and become cancerous.
Many such tumors change in this way during the “change
of life.” Any tumor of the breast, at any age, which
remains despite effort to dissipate it should be removed
by operation. A physician is not justified in assuring a
woman that a lump in the breast is harmless. It should
be cut into and examined to positively decide its char-
acter. Early operation of tumors of the breast has
greatly reduced the percentage of deaths from cancer.

Cancer of the Womb. — Occasional slight hemorrhages
becoming more frequent, and later more abundant and
offensive, constitute one of the first symptoms of cancer
of the womb. Between the actual bleedings there is a
discharge resembling dish-water. This discharge has a
foul odor. Pain is as a rule a late symptom. Sometimes
a severe pain extending into the hip or abdomen is an
early symptom but it is very infrequent. Every woman
over thirty who has a persistent leucorrhea, or any ir-
regularity of the menstrual function, should be examined
for cancer.

What Every Woman Should Know About Cancer. —
Inasmuch as cancer is curable if taken early, every
woman should take steps to be on the safe side.

If cancer is not taken early, it is certain death. A

DISEASES OF WOMEN

443

very large number die who could have been saved.

Every lump in the breast should be positively diag-
nosed by cutting into it and examining it. It would
be safer to remove every tumor of the breast at an early
date.

Any discharge from the privates of a woman which
has a bad or foul odor is suspicious ; any irrgular bleed-
ing is more than suspicious. Any woman having these
symptoms should be examined by a competent physician.
Every woman over thirty-five years of age should be
examined by a physician every six months. No woman
should enter the change of life without a very thorough
examination. Cancer is a disease which does not permit
“taking a chance1’ with. It is far better to be certain,
since it is curable if caught early, than to find out about
it when too late, because, “too late’’ means death.

“CHANGE OF LIFE.” THE MENOPAUSE

The average period of life during which a woman
menstruates is from thirty to thirty-two years. When
this period is about to expire she enters what is termed
the “change of life,” or the menopause, or the climacteric.

The average age at which “change of life” occurs in
this country is about the forty-sixth year. It may nor-
mally occur, however, at any time between the fortieth
and fiftieth year. There are cases on record when it has
occurred earlier than the fortieth and later than the
fiftieth year. When menstruation in a girl begins early,
the menopause occurs late. On the other hand, if a
girl does not have her regular monthly periods until she
is older than usual, — about the eighteenth or twentieth
year,-— the “change of life” will set in at a very early
age. Women who are victims of certain exhausting
diseases, as, consumption, Bright’s disease of the kidney,
diabetes, or whose health is poor because of general
physical debility from any cause, or who have had a
large number of children in rapid succession, enter the
“change of life” earlier than they otherwise would if
their health was good. In women who are excessively
fat the menopause is apt to occur at an early age. On

444

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

the other hand disease of the generative organs, or the
presence of tumors of the womb may retard the process.
Women in the higher walk of life, those living in cities,
those who do not labor or exercise sufficiently will enter
this period at an earlier date than those who live in the
country, who work and are physically more healthy.

Symptoms of “Change of Life.” — When the meno-
pause begins, the monthly periods are less profuse, the
flow is scanty. As the months pass, menstruation be-
comes less and less until it ceases entirely. In a certain
number of cases it stops abruptly and never appears
again. Sometimes a period misses altogether, or a num-
ber of periods are passed over without any sign of men-
struation, after which it may reappear either as a scanty
flow, or as a profuse discharge. This may be followed
for a number of months by irregular appearances of the
menstrual phenomenon and then by its total cessation.

These may be the only symptoms or signs of the
“change of life,” and this is the normal state if the
health is good. It cannot, however, be said that this is
the average experience. Unfortunately the women of
the present time do not live lives which conduce to robust
health at this period of life. We find as a rule that the
general health is below par. So they suffer from head-
ache, “flushes,” digestive disturbances, and many nervous
symptoms which appear to be directly caused by the
process through which they are passing. The “flushes”
are disagreeable experiences. They consist of a feeling
of heat which spreads over the entire body as if the
blood was rushing to the surface and to the head. These
flushes are followed by sweating and chilly sensations.
The nervous symptoms may be quite marked. The
woman loses her interest in the daily happenings. She
may have mental vagaries, she is irritable and often
melancholy and periods of seeming insanity may occur.

Importance of a Correct Diagnosis. — It is a mistake
to attribute every symptom a woman may have at this
time of life to the menopause. She is just as liable to
develop conditions at this time, which she would at any
age, and which have no relation to the “change of life.”
Every symptom should, therefore, be carefully investi-

DISEASES OF WOMEN

445

gated, because serious conditions may complicate the
menopause, and if attributed to it and neglected, may,
end disastrously.

During the “change of life,” the generative organs be-
come smaller or, as it has been termed, “dry up. the
breasts also are involved in the shrinking process. It is
quite a common experience for women to “lay on’ fat,
to become “flabby,” at this age.

It is important that women should become familiar
with the ordinary symptoms of the “change of life,” in
order that they may be constantly on guard against con-
ditions that may indicate danger. Medical investigation
has conclusively proved that many women lose their lives
because they regarded the presence of certain symptoms
as common to the “change of life.” There is a tendency
to disease at this time which must be intelligently con-
sidered, and if women are not posted to note unusual
signs or symptoms they may neglect or ignore them, only
to find when too late that these signs and symptoms were
no part of the “change of life.”

The Danger Signals of the Change of Life. — There
are certain “danger signals” which should warn every
woman that something is amiss, these are : —

(1) Profuse bleeding during the process of the
“change.”

(2) Bleeding occurring between the regular menstrual
periods.

(3) The reappearance of slight bleedings or hem-
orrhages after menstruation has ceased for a number of
months.

These symptoms are always suggestive of the presence
of conditions that should not exist. They may indicate
cancer, or some less serious condition that is amenable to
cure by prompt and efficient treatment. Inasmuch as
they may mean the beginning of cancer, — as explained
in the preceding chapter on cancer, and which should
be read in this connection, — immediate steps should be
taken to find out the actual facts. Delay means death if
it is cancer, while the most recent statistics show that in
many cases a complete cure is possible if the surgeon
gets the case early.

446

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

Conduct During “Change of Life.” — When a woman
enters the “change of life” she is approaching a crisis
that demands the most conscientious attention on her
own part, and the sincerest consideration by all around
her. She has reached the time of life when she owes
herself something, and if she is wise she will willingly
pay the debt. If she is not in good health she must
make every effort to regain it promptly, even if radical
measures must be employed in doing so. Nothing will
contribute to her mental and physical comfort more than
robust health during this period.

She must employ every hygienic measure that experi-
ence has taught us contributes to our well being. She
must live an outdoor life as much as possible, taking
sufficient exercise to keep the muscles and bodily func-
tions in good condition. If she cannot exercise enough
she should sit out of doors, dressed in seasonable cloth-
ing, and she should make up the deficiency in exercise
by employing a competent masseuse. A thorough pas-
sage twice a week is sufficient. If her physician recom-
mends an occasional Turkish bath it is a desirable aid
as it helps the skin to throw off any excess of waste
matter that may be circulating in the blood.

The home environment of these women should be con-
genial, and they should be relieved of the work and
worry incident to domestic life. The nervous condition
demands this degree of consideration, and the husband
should make it his business to see that the wife, who has
toiled to aid him during all the long years of married
companionship, is accorded every possible help through
the most trying and important period of her life. It is
not to be understood, however, that she should be left
without occupation. It is possible to indulge in con-
genial work which will occupy her time and attention
without overtaxing her strength or fraying her nerves.
A certain amount of amusement is desirable, and helps to
tide over periods that might lag and encourage intro-
spection and worry. An entire change of scenery and
surroundings. A visit to the seashore or to the moun-
tains is to be commended.

During this period the diet should be simple and the

DISEASES OF WOMEN

447

bowels should be kept open regularly. Inasmuch as these
patients frequently suffer from digestive disturbances, it
is wise to refrain from those articles of diet that ordi-
narily cause indigestion. Such articles are, sweet dishes,
pies, pastries, candies, fresh bread, fried food, sugars,
and the relishes and seasoning extras which constitute
the et ceteras of the table. Meat should never be taken
to excess, alcohol and all stimulants are to be avoided.
Water may be taken freely to advantage.

»

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

CHAPTER XXX

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

What Mothers Should Know About the Patent Medicine
Evil — Tonics — Used by Temperance People Because it
Could “Stimulate” — Stomach Bitters — Blood Bitters —
Sarsaparilla — Celery Compounds — Malt Whisky — Head-
ache Remedies — Pain Powders — Anti-headache Powders
— Headache Powders — Soothing Syrups — Baby’s Friends
—Catarrh Powders — Kidney Pills — Expectorant — Cough
Syrup — Lithia Waters — Health, Wealth and Happiness
for a Dollar a Bottle — New Discovery for Consumption —
Consumption Cure — Cancer Cures — Pills for Pale People
— Elixir of Life.

WHAT MOTHERS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE

PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

Much has been written about the patent medicine evil
during the past few years. One very thorough crusade
has been instituted and efficiently carried through, ex-
posing the evils of the patent medicine business. What-
ever legislation is in force to-day which has for its ob-
ject the regulation of the evil, is largely a product of
that crusade. Notwithstanding these efforts, it is a
fact that scarcely any of the great majority who should
be interested in the subject, because they are its victims,
have any knowledge of the nature or extent of the evil,
or appreciate its far-reaching and pernicious influence.
For two reasons I regard it as peculiarly fitting, that the
subject should be given adequate consideration in this
book

First, because mothers should be told the whole truth
about all conditions that have any influence on the health
of the members of the home.

Second, because though we are the victims of many

evils and many forms of “graft,” which directly or in-

451

452

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

directly affect our pockets and our morals, we submit
to them because they have no bearing on the physical
well-being of the race. As mothers, however, and as
the conservers of the fitness of the family and the home,
we are directly and rightly interested in an evil which
deeply affects the health and the efficiency of members
of the family as the patent medicine evil does. It is
through the mothers of the race that this enemy of the
home must be finally and completely overthrown. If
every mother in the land could be taught to understand
even a fraction of the truth of the insidious wrong hid-
den under the mask of the nostrum advertisement, we
would witness a righteous resentment that could only
be satisfied by legislative enactment that would wipe out
forever the whole infamous business. No spasmodic
or localized effort will ever succeed against this public
enemy. Its very strength is the people whom it dupes
and despises, because they supply the money with which
the patent medicine combine fights its battles.

It has been estimated that three hundred millions of
dollars are spent annually on patent medicines and fake
medical cures in the United States. Three hundred mil-
lion dollars fraudulently obtained every year, mostly
from the poor, is surely a subject deserving of honest and
careful consideration.

The pure food and drug act compelled the manufac-
turers of patent medicines to publish the formulae of their
remedies on their labels. This is a big step in the right
direction. Many States have helped the propaganda in
one way or another, but much remains to be done. When
the formulae were demanded it was discovered that all
nostrums belonged to a certain class. For example it
was found that the soothing syrups — which are fed to
babies — all contained opium in some form, or an equally
dangerous drug. The headache remedies were all dan-
gerous, every one of them containing ingredients which
affect the heart seriously. The so-called tonics owed
their chief virtue to their stimulating effect, which was
due to the alcohol they contained and which in many in-
stances practically equaled ordinary whisky in quality,
quantity., and effect.

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

453

It has been authoritatively stated that more alcohol is
consumed in this country in patent medicines than is dis-
pensed in a legal way by licensed liquor venders, barring
the sale of ales and beer.

Many so-called remedies were found to contain abso-
lutely no medication at all. They were simply sugar, or
starch, or some harmless substance. But they were
being sold to cure anything from kidney disease to
cancer. It was an astonishing revelation and in a way
it showed how far men will go to attain financial success.

A well-known tonic was at the time of the investigation
one of the most prominent proprietary nostrums in the
country. The actual cost including bottle, label, contents,
and packing is between fifteen and eighteen cents. It
costs in the drug store $1.00 per bottle. It was found to
contain alcohol and water and a pinch of burnt sugar for
coloring purposes, and one-half of one per cent, of mild
drugs. It was claimed that it would cure all or any of
the diseases listed in the book, and that list practically
includes all the ills of man. It is within the limits of
truth to assert that this tonic, though advertised as a medi-
cine, was largely in demand as a stimulant and intoxicant,
— -just as a certain famous malt whisky is to-day. Volu-
minous evidence is on record wherein it is shown that it
was used in enormous quantities as a stimulant, in ex-
actly the same way as ordinary whisky is used. The
dose of any medicine is, as a rule, seldom over a table-
spoonful three or four times a day. The average in-
dividual would imagine that there would be some risk
attached to increasing the dose from a tablespoonful to
the contents of a large size bottle. The only risk was
that the patient got a more profound and maybe a more
satisfying ‘‘jag.” In “no license” towns this tonic was
bought by the druggists in gross lots and used exclu-
sively for its intoxicating properties. In southern Ohio,

and in the mountain districts of West Virginia the “

jag” was a standard form of intoxication. In many
Southern newspapers there appeared regularly advertised

cures for the “ habit,” brought on by the use of

this preparation, — and no doubt the cure was a stronger
percentage of liquor as this scheme was frequently

454

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

worked to steal the patients from one remedy to another.

The following communication was sent out by the De-
partment of the Interior, as a result of the alarming re-
ports which were regularly reaching Washington re-
garding the prevalence of drunkenness among the In-
dians, despite the fact that “no liquor’ was sold in these
government reservations. The fact was that the Indians
had discovered this pleasant tonic.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Office of Indian Affairs.

Washington, D. C.

To Indian Agents and School Superintendents in charge of
Agencies :

In connection with this investigation, please give particular
attention to the proprietary medicines and other compounds which
the traders keep in stock, with special reference to the liability of
their misuse by Indians on account of the alcohol which they

contain. The sale of , which is on the lists of several traders,

is hereby absolutely prohibited. As a medicine, something else
can be substituted ; as an intoxicant, it has been found too tempt-
ing and effective

Mr. S. H. Adams in “The Great American Fraud”
writes as follows: “The other reason why this or some
other of its class is often the agency of drunkenness in-
stead of whisky is that the drinker of it doesn’t want to
get drunk, at least she doesn’t know that she wants to
get drunk. I use the feminine pronoun advisedly, be-
cause the remedies of this class are largely supported by
women. Several of the others of these well-known pro-
prietary medicines depend for their popularity chiefly on
their alcohol. One celery compound relieves depression
and lack of vitality on the same principle that a cocktail
does, and with the same necessity for repetition. I know
an estimable lady from the Middle West who visited her
dissipated brother in New York — dissipated from her
point of view, because she was a pillar of the W. C. T. U.,
and he frequently took a cocktail before dinner and came
back with it on his breath, whereon she would weep over

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

455

him as one lost to hope. One day, in a mood of brutal
exasperation, when he had not had his drink and was able
to discern the flavor of her grief, he turned on her:
Til tell you what’s the matter with you,’ he said, ‘You’re
drunk — maudlin drunk!’

‘'She promptly and properly went into hysterics. The
physician who attended diagnosed the case more politely,
but to the same effect, and ascertained that she had con-
sumed something like half a bottle of a certain swamp
root that afternoon. Now, swamp root is a very credita-
ble ‘booze,” but much weaker in alcohol than most of its
class. The brother was greatly amused until he dis-
covered, to his alarm, that his drink abhorring sister
couldn’t get along without her patent medicine bottle !
She was in a fair way, quite innocently, of becoming
a drunkard.”

Another famous stomach bitters was found to contain,
according to an official State analysis, 44 per cent, of alco-
hol ; another mixture contained 20 per cent, of alcohol ;
a certain blood bitters contained 25 per cent, of alcohol ;
a sarsaparilla 26 per cent. ; a celery compound
21 per cent. ; the malt whiskey is in this class and
is a particularly obnoxious fraud, for it pretends to
be a medicine and to relieve all kinds of lung and throat
disease. It is especially favored by temperance people
because in this way they get their “grog” in the guise of
a medicine. It is sold in many places across the bar of
saloons at 15 cents per drink, as many other brands of
rye and Bourbon whisky are sold.

Think of treating any disease of the stomach with the
famous stomach bitters containing 44 per cent, of alcohol,
— just 6 per cent, less than the amount of alcohol in an
ordinary bottle of whisky. Yet all of these patent medi-
cines have made fortunes for their owners, some of them
have made millions in a few years.

A number of years ago a company with a keen vision
for profits conceived the idea of bottling the water of the
Great Lakes and selling it at almost champagne prices.
When delivered to the druggist ready for sale the “rem-
edy” contained 99 per cent, water, the other 1 per cent,
consisting of a few drops of an inert acid, used simply

456

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

to give it a slight tart taste. The preparation had abso-
lutely no medical utility of any description.

One of the greatest advertising crusades ever carried
out in the interest of a patent medicine was inaugurated,
and in these advertisements it was claimed that it would
cure : —

Asthma,

Bronchitis,

Coughs, Colds,

Cancer,

Dyspepsia,

Fevers,

Hay Fever,

Leucorrhea,

Piles, Quinsy,

Skin Diseases,

Throat Troubles,

Abscess,

Blood Poison,

Consumption,

Catarrh,

Dandruff,

all diseases that begin with fever, inflammations, all
catarrh, all contagious diseases, all the results of impure
or poisoned blood. “In nervous diseases this remedy
acts as a vitalizer, accomplishing what no drugs can do.”
These are the exact words of the advertisement. It ought
to take a stronger vitalizer than water from the Great
Lakes to induce anyone to believe such a story ; and yet
this company attained a remarkable success and had no
difficulty in obtaining thousands of testimonials.

We are certainly a nation of dupes, and Barnum’s dic-
tum, that “the public loves to be fooled,” is literally true.
In a number of instances the proprietor of a successful
remedy has been asked under oath if his preparation had
any curative value and he has refused to answer the ques-
tion, while thousands of foolish people have sent him un-
solicited testimonials asserting its remarkable merits as a
cure in all kinds of conditions. Some of these ignorant
people actually believe what they write, but most of them

Gallstones,

Influenza,

Malaria,

Rheumatism,

Tuberculosis,

Anemia,

Bowel Troubles,
Contagious Diseases,
Dysentery, Diarrhea,
Eczema, Erysipelas,
Goiter, Gout,

La Grippe,

Neuralgia,

Scrofula,

Tumors, Ulcers,

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

457

write “to see their name in the paper,” while many of
them are paid for it.

It was stated in the literature sent all over the country
by this company that their remedy was really liquid oxy-
gen. It would be nearer the truth to state that the moon
was made of green cheese. The one assertion can be dis-
proved, the other cannot with scientific exactness. Liquid
oxygen practically does not exist. Assuming that it could
be obtained in teaspoonful doses, and assuming that some
dauntless individual made the attempt to take a dose, he
would never swallow it for the reason that it would freeze
his teeth, tongue, mouth, and throat, so that they would
be useless to him for the remainder of his life. If by any
miracle it could be swallowed, the undertaker would have
to thaw him out over a stove in order to assure him a re-
spectable burial. We may safely feel certain that the
nostrum was not liquid oxygen. It is, however, a very
fair sample of the foolish kind of lies which all of these
nostrum venders employ, — they are after, and appeal
only to the ignorant. I am informed that the directors
of this company decided to retire as ordinary millionaires
rather than risk the chance of developing nervous pros-
tration, in which event they might have felt it somewhat
disloyal not to have taken their own medicine.

Headache Remedies. — Most headache remedies are
dangerous. The following are in this class ; orange
powders, bromo powders, pain powders, headache pow-
ders, anti-headache, and practically all headache powders
or remedies sold in drug stores.

Many deaths are on record from the use of orange
powders and from others. There are many examples
of what an unthinking individual may do to helpless
little children.

Orange powders were recommended for the cure of
asthma, biliousness, headache, colds, catarrh, grip, di-
arrhea, hay fever, insomnia, neuralgia, seasickness, and
sciatica. There is no known cure for a number of these
diseases, and apart from the malicious assumption of the
claim, orange powders will not cure any of them.

> Another dangerous headache nostrum, widely adver-
tised all over the country, is responsible for many deaths

458

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

as a result of its use. It is absolutely unsafe, as pre-
viously stated, to use any of these remedies. Death
by heart failure is on the increase in this country and it
may safely be attributed to the indiscriminate use of these
powerful and toxic nostrums.

The “soothing syrups” depend upon opium to effect
their result. The drugging of helpless infants has been
a source of profit to the vender of patent medicines for
many years. A certain Baby Friend, — a touching name,
and in which one would not expect to find an enemy in
the guise of a deadly poison, — is a combination of sweet-
ened water and morphine. This disgraceful mixture,
considering the use for which it was designed, would be
bad enough if it was the evil concoction of a man ren-
dered irresponsible by a strenuous craving for blood-
money, but to know that its proprietor is a woman seems
beyond belief. I wonder if she would feel sufficiently
respectable and decently clean enough to stand on the
platform and face an audience of American mothers? I
think not.

Catarrh powders contain, as a rule, cocaine, one of the
most insidious and dangerous of drugs. . None of them
cure catarrh, they simply relieve for the time being at the
expense of injuring more vital parts. Their use also very
frequently disposes the victim to postpone treatment that

would be beneficial until too late. M ’s Kidney Pills

were said to cure Bright’s disease, gravel, all urinary
troubles and pain in the back or groins from kidney dis-
ease. Analysis showed them to consist of ordinary white
sugar. They contained absolutely no medication, and
yet they were freely sold to cure the above serious con-
ditions. A famous expectorant and an equally famous
cough syrup contain opium and when taken for the cure
of cough are distinctly dangerous.

It is foolish and unnecessary to name any other patent
medicine in the list of those that are distinctly harmful
and dangerous to use. There are hundreds of them. It
would take a book of a thousand pages to give their names
and write the data that have been obtained against them.
Every advertised medicine should be absolutely avoided.
I could fill this book with the death certificates of those

459

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

who have died as a result of the indiscriminate use of
advertised nostrums. It is an appalling record ; the un-
fortunate part being that it is impossible to acquaint every

citizen with the facts.

Duplicity and misrepresentation are not confined to
patent medicines. Even the mineral waters are misrepre-
sented and lied about. A much-advertised lithia water,
before the passage of the pure food and drugs act, was
highly vaunted as a uric acid eliminant because of the
lithia it was said to contain. Thousands, probably mil-
lions of gallons of it have been sold during the past
twenty years, to people who could not very 'well afford
to pay for it, because of this claim, despite the fact that
it is well known that lithia is not a uric acid eliminant,
and despite the additional important fact that the govern-
ment analysis of this lithia water proved that it prac-
tically contained no lithia whatsoever. It is now being
sold as an “alkaline diuretic.” This claim is no better
supported by facts than the former claim that it was a
lithia water. Of course it is a diuretic, because water
is the best diuretic we possess, but any ordinary pure
water, which costs nothing, will just as effectually accom-
plish all that this lithia water could as a diuretic.

It is a fact that the judgment of a sick person is not
reliable. For this reason a physician never tries to treat
himself when sick, nor will a physician treat any member
of his family for much the same reason. His sentiment
overrules his judgment and he cannot depend upon his
decisions. An individual who is not well may be influ-
enced by an irresponsible person, or by a clever, subtly
worded advertisement, to use remedies that are not only
dangerous in themselves, but which are wholly unsuited
to the condition for which they are taken.

Quite a common characteristic of sick people is un-
reasonableness. They become irritable and discouraged,
and not being able to rely upon their own judgment they
fail to render to themselves the degree of justice that is
essential to peace of mind and a favorable convalescence.
They may place themselves in the care of a reputable
and thoroughly qualified physician, but if they do not
observe distinct evidences of improvement within a very

460

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

brief period they lose faith in him and change their doc-
tor. They may do this a number of times, until finally
they reach the conclusion that the entire medical profes-
sion is a fraud. They are then the legitimate victims of
the patent medicine shark or the fake-curist. Probably
ninety-nine per cent, of the victims of these parasites are
obtained in this way. The statement often seen in testi-
monials to the effect, that “ the best doctors failed to
cure me,’ is not true in any instance. The truth is, that
the individual failed to give the doctors the opportunity
to cure him, and the reason he did not give them the
chance was because they treated him as a man and as a
human being, which he proved not to be. Had the first
doctor he consulted adopted the tactics of the quack he
would have cured him in a much shorter time. Instead
of doing that, he told him the exact truth and charged
him an ordinary office fee, while the quack told him lies
and charged him a large sum of money to cure him.
The latter gentleman, knowing the tendency to vacillate
which these individuals have, ensured himself the time
necessary to a cure by compelling him to pay the entire
sum in advance, which is their universal custom. The
patient, therefore, could not afford to change his doctor
this time, and as time was all that was necessary to his
cure, the wily and oily quack gets all the credit for effect-
ing a cure, which “the best doctors could not accomplish/'
It is a simple game, and the explanation is just as simple,
but there are those who will not see, and there are those
who cannot be told.

It is not simple justice, however, to blame these individ-
uals altogether. We must keep in mind the irresolute
judgment which is to a certain extent a product of the
ill-health with which the patient suffers and the conse-
quent easy tendency to be persuaded one way or another.
The way in which these people are influenced is always
the wrong way for the following reason. No person with
any judgment or common sense or justice or sympathy
would be fool enough or inhuman enough to give advice
to a suffering sick man or woman as to what he or she
should do or take. These individuals do not lack advice,
however. There is always the pestering idiot around

461

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

who knows exactly what should be done, and who does
not hesitate to enter where an angel would fear to tread.

In the columns of almost every newspaper one may
find promises of health, wealth and happiness for a dollar
a bottle. Even consumption has been vaunted as an easily
curable disease by a hundred different nostrums, though
the truth is that it is incurable by any known drug. Men
who advertise these remedies are deliberately trafficking
in human life, and they are thoroughly well aware of it.
It is difficult to conceive of the type of manhood who
would advertise a remedy as “The only sure cure for con-
sumption in the world ;” this was extensively done by the
concern that put a certain “New Discovery for Con-
sumption” on the market. Further announcement was
made that “it strikes terror to the doctors,” and that it was
“the greatest discovery of the century.” Every such as-
sertion is a lie. It was found to be a mixture of morphine
and chloroform. It is a wicked concoction to give to any
human being in good health. To a consumptive it is
admirably designed to shorten the life of anyone who
will take it steadily in the hope of a cure. It certainly
struck terror in the hearts of the doctors after its com-
position was known and when it was remembered to
whom it was to be given.

“Consumption Cure” was found to contain one of
the most deadly of known poisons, — prussic acid. In a
booklet which was sent out by the proprietors of a
certain cough syrup the following contemptible asser-
tion is made: “There is no case of hoarseness, cough,
asthma, bronchitis, or consumption that cannot be cured
speedily by the proper use of this cough syrup.” Such a
cruel and dangerously fraudulent statement is absolutely

inexplicable to any honest mind. Dr. ’s pills

for pale people, were advertised to cure paralysis. They
were found to be made of green vitriol, starch and sugar.

Those who bought these nostrums not only wasted their
money, but they threw away any chance of relief they
have, by failing to adopt the proper treatment until it
was too late.

In directing the attention of mothers to the evil of the
patent medicine business it is my earnest hope that they

462

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

will give to the subject something more than a mere pass-
ing interest. To an intelligent individual no lengthy argu-
ment,— other than the recital of such facts as are given
in this article, — is necessary to prove that it is an evil
which is deserving of the most serious consideration.

The business is one that appeals only to the ignorant.
This is a plain and probably a harsh assertion, neverthe-
less it is absolutely the simple truth. The language and
the reasoning of the nostrum vender are not designed to
appeal to the trained, educated mind, or to an individual
possessing innate common sense. Even though the ave-
rage person is unacquainted with the constituents of a
remedy that apparently enjoys a large success, the ab-
surd claims made for it should safeguard them against
its use. Few would have purchased ordinary water at
$1.00 a bottle had they known what they were buying.
But an individual with any reasoning ability or ordinary
common sense, should have been sceptical regarding the
merits of any remedy that was claimed to “cure,” among
other diseases, consumption, cancer, rheumatism, malaria,
gallstones, asthma, blood poison, dandruff, and all con-
tagious diseases. It would be impossible to conceive a
more mendacious and absurd claim, and it would be im-
possible to concoct a more impertinently foolish assump-
tion than to assume that such a claim would receive the
consideration of a sane mind.

Unfortunately, however, we are compelled to recog-
nize that there are some curious people in the world,
people whose reasoning methods are inexplicable, whose
conclusions are not based upon any system of ethics or of
logic. They believe what they choose to believe, irre-
spective of the quality of the testimony which may be
advanced to refute their belief. The following incident
illustrates this peculiar perversity: A woman patient of

mine suffered from an obstinate and harassing cough.
Though her general health was rather poor, her lungs
were not affected. The cough persisted in spite of all
efforts of specialists to alleviate it. The nervous con-
dition of the patient, and an unusually long spell of incle-
ment March weather, were directly responsible for the
intractable character of the ailment. I advised her to

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

463

visit Florida. This advice was given because her parents
were then residing in that State. She did go to Florida
and her husband informed me a few weeks later that
she was entirely free from the cough and was enjoying
good health. A number of months later, shortly after her
return home, I was called to attend her husband. During
the conversation incident to the call, she asked if I “ knew
what cured her awful cough.” Somewhat amazed, I re-
plied, “Certainly, Florida. ” She answered, with positive
emphasis, “No, sir, Florida did not.” I then asked her .
to please explain the mystery and was regaled with the
following interesting information:

A few days after she reached Florida she met a
woman — one of those irresponsible individuals who me-
ander through life giving free advice upon subjects which
they know nothing about, who talk eruptively and volu-
minously because talking is an easily acquired habit. This
particular missionary of evil immediately confided to her
the secret of her life, how she was made a well woman
and cured wholly of all physical ills. She told her
there was a man in Kansas who had discovered a liquid,
which, if dropped into the eye twice daily, would cure
any disease afflicting any member of the human family.
This exuberant spider induced her victim to enter her
parlor where she convinced her at her leisure that she
was preaching the gospel. The result was that our
friend sent to Kansas for the “Elixir of Life.” Mean-
time the climate of Florida was doing its work. But just
at this psychological moment the “elixir” arrived. Two
drops of the precious liquid were, with due solemnity and
deliberation, instilled into her eye and in a few days her
cough began to mend. It would have been waste of
time to have asked if she really believed the drops to be
responsible for her cure. She spoke with the enthusiastic
conviction of a disciple of a worthier cause. I inquired
if she possessed any literature explaining the method of
cure, and she presented me with the printed matter which
is sent with the bottle. I told her I would look it over
and tell her what I thought of it later.

The Message of Facts , which was the title of the news-
paper, (it was printed like a newspaper and of the size

464

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

of an ordinary paper), contained complete information
regarding the “wonderful remedy ’ and its discoverer. He
assumed the title of Professor and candidly admitted that
he had been arrested a number of times for practicing
medicine without a license. He asserted that the reason
of his numerous arrests was because the medical pro-
fession in the State of Kansas, being jealous of his success,
instigated a course of insistent persecution against him.
He further asserted that he offered to sell his discovery
to the State, but the State refused to purchase it, conse-
quently he had to go on practicing to earn a living. With
reference to his method of treatment he stated :

“Despite the fact that medical men are too unfair and
too prejudiced to accord Professor the credit he

has justly earned, there is no getting away from the
plain truth, that the great scientist has originated a meth-
od of conquering human ills that has completely revolu-
tionized the long-cherished theories of the medical

schools.” .

And further, “. . . being the discoverer of my system

and the only man in the world practicing it, and having
all cures and no cases of injury as my record shows.

Note that, in the first quotation, he asserts that his
methods have revolutionized the old-time theories, ihis
would surely imply that the medical schools, having been
compelled to note his successful ways, were compelled
likewise to change their theories and teach his way ot
curing disease. Despite this strong and robust asser-
tion he states, in the second quotation, that lie is the
only man in the world practicing his methods. Evidently
he "did not revolutionize to any very great extent.

He claimed to be able to cure any human ill, and par-
ticularly emphasized his ability to cure consumption,
Bright’s disease, diabetes, epilepsy, asthma stomach
troubles, nervous prostration, blindness, female diseases,

paralysis, heart and kidney diseases.

He of course, does not state the nature of his remedy.
It consists of a liquid which is dropped into the eye,
and the procedure is the same, no _ matter what disease
afflicts the patient. It is not essential to write at length
his explanation of the way in which this marvelous dis-

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

465

covery” effects its cures. Suffice it to say, that it is a tis-
sue of anatomical and physiological misrepresentation.
He admittedly is uneducated and possesses absolutely no
knowledge of even elementary medicine. His explana-
tion is, therefore, to a medical mind, a ludicrous and an
absurd attempt to tell what he does not understand. Of
course, his explanation is not supposed to fall into the
hands of a physician, and to a lay person, who understands
as little as he does, it sounds all right. We must again
fall back on the foolish claims he makes and on the basis
of common sense we fail to understand how anyone can
believe such stuff. Yet the woman who firmly believes
that her cough was cured by this man has enthusiastically
recommended the nostrum to a number of other women
who have various ailments, all of whom are using it under
her experienced instructions.

This is a very good illustration of how these impostors
and charlatans succeed. This woman was approached
at the psychological moment and was influenced to buy.
It did not necessarily have to be these drops. It might
just as well have been any other patent medicine, or any
fake cure. It would have worked just the same for the
reason that it was the climate of Florida that did the
work. It is absurd to devote time even to consider the
probability of the drops having aided in the cure. This
man’s whole scheme is a fake, pure and simple. No part
of it has any merit. In other words, his remedy is no
remedy at all, it is simply the mildest, ordinary eye wash,
which may be bought in any drug store for ten cents.
He charges $5.00, but think of the story he writes, think
of the promises he gives and the claims he makes, and
the paper he prints, — these all cost money and time and
labor, and you must pay for them. And I know a woman
who is putting these drops in her eye twice daily in the
hope of correcting a displaced womb. Could the brain
of the most facile weaver of romance conceive a more
utterly absurd and pitiful condition of affairs than that
an adult human being should be guilty of doing what an
intelligent ant would not do under any circumstances?

When the “professor” claims that he refuses to “give
up his secret unless the State of Kansas adequately re-

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THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

munerates him for it, which, of course, it rightly refuses
to do — he demonstrates how absolutely devoid of horse
sense he is. No man with a “cure” for consumption —
without mentioning the many other equally remunerative
“cures” which this wizard owns, and which may be ap-
pended to the consumption “cure” just as the side-shows
journey in the wake of the big circus — need waste his
precious time dickering with the unappreciative State of
Kansas. If his “cure” is anywhere near twenty-four
carat gold he can own the State of Kansas and he may
add another one to it for good measure. Any man ca-
pable of doing one-thousandth part of what this wily
“professor” claims to be able to do, would make so much
money that it would embarrass him all the rest of his
life. One of his claims is that he can cure epilepsy.
If he could cure epilepsy he wouldn't be allowed to stay
twenty-four hours in the State of Kansas. Every civilized
country on the face of the earth would bid for his
services as an economic necessity because as an invest-
ment he would be cheap at any price.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL— Continued

The Consumption Cure — Personals to Consumptives —

Nature’s Creation — Female Weakness Cures — Various
Compounds and Malt Whiskies.

FRAUDULENT TESTIMONIALS

It would indeed seem to be an act of supererogation
to compile further evidence of the infamy of this en-
tire business: what additional proof is necessary?

A certain Dr. H. of , Mich., published widely

the following advertisement:

“Gains 17 Pounds After Every One Gave Her Up.

Miss I S had a terrible case of consumption,

together with catarrh and bronchitis. With this terrible
complication, given up to die, she took the H treat-

ment. She is now cured.”

^Dear Doctor: I have been gaining rapidly. Have gained

17 pounds; weigh 150 pounds now and am getting quite
strong, too. I wish you could see me. You would be sur-
prised. I look just fine. Everybody says they never thought
I would get well. I can’t thank you enough for it. I am feel-
ing just fine, so I will close.

Yours truly,

Miss I S .

The above testimonial reads quite convincing and
doubtless was the means of influencing many other un-
fortunate victims to put themselves under the “profes-
sional” care of Dr. H . Investigation, however, re-

vealed the fact that this optimistic young lady died shortly
after giving the testimonial and that her death was, ac-
cording to the transcript of her certificate of death is-
sued by the State of Wisconsin, due to “consumption.”
The testimonial therefore cannot possibly have any value
under the circumstances. Unfortunately, however, this
doctor does not publish the death certificate with the

467

468

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

testimonial, which latter he continued to use after her
death.

After an exhaustive inquiry into the personality and
business of the above mentioned M. D., the Journal of
the American Medical Association said:

First. The H consumption cure is chiefly owned and

controlled by men whose only qualification for treating
disease is that they are business men financially interested
in other medical fakes.

Second. The claims made in the advertisements, either
directly or by implication, that these “remedies” will “cure”
consumption are cruel and heartless falsehoods.

Third. The methods employed to capture victims, by
means of speciously worded circular letters disguised as per-
sonal communications, are an imposition, if not an actual
fraud, on the ignorant and credulous.

Fourth. The drugs sent out by this concern as a “trial
treatment” are worthless as a cure for consumption.

Fifth. In printing endorsements of himself, which this
M.D. received from ministers of the gospel, he grossly abused
the confidence of men who did not know the use to which
their letters were to be put.

Sixth. The testimonials from physicians which he pub-
lishes have been shown to emanate in some cases from men
who themselves are employed in exploiting medical fakes.

Seventh. The claim he makes of being a graduate of Edin-
burgh University has been shown to be as false as the claims
made for the nostrum he exploits.

Can a much more disgraceful business than the various
“consumption cure” humbugs be imagined? Founded on
fraud, maintained by deceit, perpetuated by falsehood the
sick are exploited to pay dividends on corporate quackery.
How much longer will this outrage on the unfortunate vic-
tims of the White Plague be tolerated? If not for humani-
tarian reasons, then for its own protection, at least, society
should demand that such cruel frauds be suppressed. Their
existence is a menace to public health and a disgrace to mod-
ern civilization.

Many fraudulent nostrums are advertised as blind ad-
vertisements in the “Personal” columns of the daily press.
The following recently appeared in the “Personal ’
columns of papers all over the country:

PERSONAL— TO CONSUMPTIVES: I possess infor-

mation which cost me a fortune, and feel that I should let
every consumptive know about my experience. Mrs. R., Ohio.

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

469

To those who answered this advertisement was sent
a letter written on pale blue stationery, such as is used
ofr social correspondence, with the initials — . R. em-
bossed, monogram style, in gilt on the paper and envelope,
signed “Mrs. — . R.” It is asserted in this letter that
the writer has cured herself “in defiance of the world’s
scientists,” by the discovery of “a combination of cer-
tain roots and herbs.” As a consequence of having made
this discovery, and after spending a fortune in the quest
of a cure according to the advertisement, we are informed
that “I am now devoting my life to saving others.” Ac-
cording to further information, her effort is apparently
successful, because she “finds it impossible to attend per-
sonally to the multitude of inquiries with which she is
favored.” She finds it necessary, therefore, “to refer

your letter to my secretary, Mr. C , from whom you

will no doubt hear soon.” The secretary is very evidently
on the job, “for in the next mail there is delivered a letter

from the Company, signed “H. W. C ,

Sec’y.”

We can estimate the degree of Mrs. R.’s solicitude for
the welfare of the race when we learn that the same
concern was engaged in exploiting a syphilis “cure” in
Chicago a few years ago. In all probability the cure is
the same for both diseases. It is difficult to tell of which
disease it was that Mrs. R. cured herself.

Among the testimonials published by this concern in
its booklet are quite a number in which the statement
is made, frequently in glowing terms, that the writer

has been “cured” of consumption by . A few

of these were investigated and in every instance the
writer died of consumption. This mixture is, in the
strongest terms that can be used, a fake, a fraud, and
is not a “cure” for consumption, as, of course, every in-
telligent person knows.

TO CONSUMPTIVES.

The undersigned having been restored to health by simple
means, after suffering for several years with a severe lung
affection, and that dread disease Consumption, is anxious to
make known to his fellow sufferers the means of cure. To
those who desire it, he will cheerfully send (free of charge)

470

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

a copy of the prescription used, which they will find a sure
cure for Consumption, Asthma, Catarrh, Bronchitis, and all
throat and lung maladies. He hopes all sufferers will try his
remedy, as it is invaluable. Those desiring the prescription,
which will cost them nothing, and may prove a blessing, will
please address Rev. W., , N. Y.

A reply to this advertisement brought the informa-
tion that the Rev. W contracted tuberculosis while in

charge of a church in Maine, and after trying various

treatments was finally cured by “a famous Dr. C , of

Paris, France.” It was now his intention to “devote his
life” to aid suffering humanity, in a spirit of thankfulness,
by giving away, free of all charge, a copy of the famous
prescription.

Investigation proved that the Rev. E. A. W did not

exist, consequently he never had a church in Maine, nor

did he contract tuberculosis, or consult Dr. C , of

Paris. The individual who conducted the business was

really one C. A. A , who, it is to be inferred, conceived

the whole fake. The scheme was a simple one. When the
prescription was received it was discovered that the in-
gredients were not known to the drug trade and it was

necessary to send to Mr. A for a supply before it

could be tested. The literature sent with the prescription
was of such a character that the average ignorant sufferer
from consumption, hoping against hope for a .“cure,”
fell into the trap and sent the money for a trial shipment.

“FEMALE WEAKNESS” CURES

Dr. D ’s “ Compound”: This nostrum is

sold to relieve the pain of child-birth. It is surely not
necessary to state that it will not relieve the pains of
child-birth, nor will any drug or drugs ever do so. The
irresponsible group of quacks who claim to have solved
the problem of “painless child-birth” through the use of
various “compound’s” hardly merit the consideration of
ordinary individuals. It is almost impossible to believe
that a man would print over his name such a puerile or

fantastic story as the following. Dr. D asserts that

the value of his compound is proved because a certain
woman patient tells how, after losing her first child, she

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

471

had a vision. A “white-robed angel’’ appeared, who, after
speaking to her in beautiful language, said, “Go, sister,
and seek freedom and peace in the use of Com-

pound and in following the teachings of that book.”

The book is entitled “Painless Child-Birth,” it sells
for $2.00 and it simply extols, in unnecessary flowery
language, the merits of the compound.

If we heard such stories in every-day life we would
smile credulously at our informant and doubt his sanity,
but in a patent medicine advertisement we expect to
read of miracles and we almost hope to be told of im-
possible happenings. The more glaringly false and silly
they seem to be, the more they seem to exert their subtle
hypnotic influence on anyone whose physical or mental
temperament lends itself to the appeal.

This compound “speedily cures all derangements and
irregularities of the menstrual function, congestion, in-
flammation, ulceration and displacement of the womb, and
other things too numerous to mention.” It is claimed that
it is made of the purest and most carefully selected herbs
which can be obtained. If, however, one picked up two
handfuls of dried leaves in the woods and put them in
a package, the average man could not distinguish be-
tween such rakings and “Dr. D ’s Compound”

at $1.00 a package.

The Journal of the American Medical Association in
commenting on this fake, states :

Compound is, in short, but one more of the innu-
merable cure-alls on the market in which discarded, unrec-
ognized or useless drugs are pressed into service and invested
with miraculous virtues. What shall be said of men who
prey on pregnant women? Who create in the mind of the
expectant mother the fear of untold agonies and then offer
immunity to these supposititious tortures at the price of their
worthless nostrums? Who, with the help of such publica-
tions as will accept their lying advertisements, do more to
encourage abortion than even the professional abortionists
themselves? There seems to be but one remedy: Speed the
time when in their acceptance of advertising those publishers
who fail to recognize decency as a moral obligation may be
forced by public opinion to recognize its value as a business
proposition.

472

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

The C. B. M. Remedy Company: In a small town in

Indiana there is a ‘lady” who has been spending a for-
tune in giving medical treatment absolutely free to suf-
fering women. The letters, literature, and advertisements
by implication lead one to suppose that a woman is in
charge of the business of this concern. The advertise-
ments have a picture of a lady giving away packages of
medicine. The business was conducted by one F. D. M.
The name of his wife was simply used as an advertising
asset; the idea, of course, being that a woman would be
more willing to write to a business concern telling of
her private illnesses if she understood that she was
confiding in a woman than she would if under the im-
pression that her letter would be read by a man. This
is an old scheme which was employed by others for many
years with great success.

M. himself is not a physician and is in no way quali-
fied to give advice to these women who write in response
to the advertisements detailing their symptoms and tell-
ing of their troubles. Investigation showed that the med-
icine was compounded by the clerks and stenographers in
the employ of the company, and that all communications
were answered by form letters. It did not matter what
ailed the patient, the treatment was the same.

The claims made by this concern for their remedy,
and they had only one, were along the usual line — every-
thing they could think about which has a remote connec-
tion with the specialty in which they were interested
leucorrrhea, ulceration, displacement or falling of the
womb, profuse, scanty or painful, periods, uterine or
ovarian tumors or growths, and piles from any cause,
no matter of how long standing ; also pains in the back
head and bowels, bearing down feelings, nervousness,
creeping feeling up the spine, melancholy, desire to cry,
hot flushes, weariness, uterine cancers in their earlier

stages

Analysis of the remedy showed it to be a combination
of two weak, commonly used drugs, one a very mild
antiseptic and the other a mild astringent. These were
held together with cocoa butter into which a drop of
carbolic acid may have been put. There is nothing un-

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

473

usual in the combination, nor has it any wonderful quali-
ties which would justify the claims made in behalf of
it. The remedy contains nothing which could under any
circumstances effect the removal of cancers, fibroid
growths, or polypi, or which is capable of radically re-
lieving laceration of the womb due to child-birth.

The following is one of the specious appeals which
this meretricious concern sent to the ailing women of
America :

Mrs. M. receives more mail than any other woman in the
state.

How would you like to receive so much mail that it would
be necessary to use a grindstone in order to open the letters
as fast as they come in This is the way Mrs. C. B. M.
opens her mail. She gets tons of mail, and to save time has
the letters opened by a large grindstone, which occupies a
conspicuous place in her office. No other person in Indiana
receives so much mail as she.

Mrs. M.’s aid and advice is as free to you as God’s sun-
shine or the air you breathe. She is always glad to lend her
assistance to every suffering woman, and she is a generous,
good woman, who has suffered herself as you suffer, and she
wants to prove to you that her common sense home treat-
ment will cure you just as surely as it cured her years ago
m her humble cottage before riches and fame came to her.

If you are a sufferer from any female trouble, no matter
what it is, send the coupon below to Mrs. C. B. M. at once.

I am a woman with all a woman’s hopes and fears. I have
known what it is to be sick in body and mind. Sick in a way
that I couldn’t bring myself to explain to a man, even though
he were my physician, and I am thankful beyond the power
of words to express that I have been given the power to ex-
tend to you, my sisters, the priceless boon of relief from the
burden of pain and suffering.

. 1 on]y Pray that this little book may be the means of sav-
ing some woman from years of such agony as only a woman
can know.

I dedicate this book to you.

WOMEN’S DISEASES

I doubt if you can realize the full meaning of these two
little words. I, who come in contact with the pitiful wrecks
of womanhood wrought by female complaints, know as I
hope you will never know, what shattered lives and broken
hearts they cause.

Only a sensitive woman can realize how hard it is to bring

474

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

one’s self to undergo the ordeal of examination and treat-
ment by a physician.

Every letter sent out by this concern was signed, “Mrs.
C. B. M.” All literature, every booklet, and every ad-
vertisement was ingeniously and seductively “built up”
to convey by implication the impression that the business
was conducted by a woman, and hence the inference fol-
lowed in the minds of the simple, trusting victims, that
they were writing their secrets, to be read by one of their
own sex, and that this woman was professionally quali-
fied and temperamentally capable of giving competent ad-
vice and adequate treatment.

Nothing was further from the truth. It was simply a
trick, a fraudulent, venal imposition. Mrs.. C. B. M. her-
self admitted that she had absolutely nothing to do with
the conduct of the business, nor did her previous experi-
ence in any way fit her to give advice in such matters.
Her husband established the business under the name of

the Medicine Company, and continued under this

name until after his marriage, when it was reorganized
and incorporated in his wife’s name. Benefiting by. the
experience of similar concerns, he then used his wife s
name simply as a business asset. How capably and
efficiently he utilized this opportunity is shown in the
beguiling literature he sent out as the above quotation
amply demonstrates.

Think of a man writing, “I am a woman with all a
woman’s hopes and fears,”— and then proceeding to play,
with consummate skill, upon the sensibility and credulity
of a sick and neurasthenic woman. It is a round-about
way to reach the public pocketbook, but experience has
taught these harpies that it is an eminently successful
method. Mr. M. himself admitted that the gross re
ceipts from the business were in excess of $100,000 a
year, and that 200,000 people were taking treatment from

this concern at one time. #

Mention has been made of a certain famous compound
— which has been characterized by a well-known authority
on drug addictions as “a dangerous drug used largely by
drinkers.” For 23 years after the death of the woman

475

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

founder, and , the owners of the concern, adver-

tised, inviting women to “write to L. P. for advice in re-
card to their complaints, and being a woman though a
dead one — “it was easy for her ailing sisters to pour into
her ears every detail of their suffering.

The advertisement as generally printed runs :

No physician in the world has had such a training, or has
such an amount of information at hand to assist m the treat-
ment of all kinds of female ills. T v in

This, therefore, is the reason why Mrs. E— - i 7* T;

her laboratory at , Mass., is able to do more for the ailing

women of America than the family physician. Any woman,
therefore, is responsible for her own suffering who will not
take the trouble to write to Mrs. P for advice.

Does any woman need any further^ evidence of the
fraudulent intent of such concerns? Keep in mind also
that this particular remedy is exclusively recommended
for “the diseases of women,” and contains enough alcohol
to render its users victims of the alcoholic habit.

MEDICINE CONCERN RUN BY WOMEN

Dr. D runs a mail order business in another

town* in Indiana. Her specialty is “diseases of wom-
en.” The business is really owned by W. M. G — — , a
dealer in teas, coffees, etc. In the advertisements of the

concern Dr. D emphasizes the fact that she. is a

woman — a wife — a mother — a successful physician a
specialist on diseases of women. In many places in the
literature of the company the “vast experience of Dr.

D is intentionally elaborated..

“Her vast experience as a physician is only one of the

qualifications she possesses ...”

“Her training and vast experience as a physician en-
ables her to do more for suffering^ women than any
woman can who is not a physician . . .”

“During several years of active life as a general prac-
titioner she acquired a vast amount of valuable experience

that very few ever possess ...”

These three quotations emphatically assert that Dr. D.
has had “vast” experience “as a general practitioner.”

476

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

Where did she get this experience as a general practi-
tioner? Inasmuch as she graduated as a physician in
1907 and was licensed to practice in 1908, and as the

D Company” was chartered in 1908 and

began active business then, we ask again, where did she
get her ‘"vast experience?”

The following letter, sent by Dr. D to one of her

prospective patients, gives a general idea of how the
“game” is worked. These letters are “form” letters,
printed by the thousand, though they are intended to con-
vey the impression that they are personal — the patient’s

name being inserted. It will be observed that Dr. D

has acquired the specious and oily art of the quack,
and the seductive diction of those who live by their wits:

Dear Friend: Since it is your misfortune to be afflicted, I

am glad you wrote to me, because I sincerely believe that
I can completely cure you if you take my treatment now.
Realizing the serious nature of your condition, I at once
arranged to give your case my prompt personal attention.

After years of success in curing practically every form of
woman’s ills, I am devoting my life to my sister women.
Being a woman and a mother, I know your every ache and
pain and sympathize with you as only a woman can. As a
physician, as a specialist in diseases of women I know the
causes of your trouble and the most scientific method of
curing you quickly. Since you have in me a sympathetic
friend as well as a physician I trust you will read carefully
my plan for your complete recovery.

A careful diagnosis of your case shows you have Female

jQ Qg g

I have mailed a copy of my book, ‘‘Diseases of Women
and Home Medical Guide.” Be sure to read a description ot
your condition on pages 25-47.

As requested I have mailed you a free trial of my suc-
cessful treatment. It is bound to help you and you should
take it at once according to my directions enclosed here-
with. The free medicines will last you for three days and
are suited to your condition, but you should not expect them
to cure you. Some of the ingredients contained in the reme-
dies you need are very costly and I cannot afford to give
you enough of these medicines to completely cure you.

Your case seems to be of long standing and you really
should have a Complete Course of Treatment at once if you
are to be completely cured. As I want to do everything
possible for you I have prepared a Special Course of Treat-
ment for you and am sending it, postage paid, in the same
package with the free remedies.

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

477

Please remember that the free remedies are yours to take
at once without charge or obligation, but if you use the
Special Treatment I shall expect you to send me $3 for it.
You need not feel under obligation to me to accept the
Special Course, but I know it is just what you need and
need NOW, so I feel sure your good judgment will cause
you to accept it at your earliest convenience. By sending
now I save you some time and . . .

Dr. G. M‘. B., of , Mo., advertises to cure

deafness, catarrh, asthma and head noises. He offers to
send two months’ medicine free to prove his ability to
cure. In reply to inquiry he practically informs every
applicant that his case is so bad that there is no use
of sending the two months’ treatment. In order to ef-
fect a cure in “your case” it is necessary for you to take
the regular treatment. He accepts the chance that the
literature and the testimonials accompanying his letter
will influence the victim to bite. Inasmuch as he admits
that his income is about $5,000 per month and that
he gets three hundred letters every day, it may be as-
sumed that he knows his business.

It is not necessary to go into details regarding his
methods. The following summary of his business was
made by the district attorney who investigated it:

I find that the business is being conducted through the
post office at , Mo., under the names of Dr. Rem-
edy Company and Dr. J. M. B , and is a scheme and de-

vice for obtaining money through the mails by means of
false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises,
and I therefore recommend that a fraud order be issued
prohibiting the delivery of mail and the payment of money
orders to such addresses.

A certain “pure” malt whiskey is advertised as :

“A reliable all-round household remedy.”

“It should be in every family medicine chest.”

It is manufactured for the purpose of supplying the
profession and public in general with a reliable tonic and
stimulant.”

‘Tt is a recognized specific to enrich the blood and
build body and muscle, and in the prevention and re-
lief of coughs, colds and stomach troubles it has no
equal.”

478

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

Previous to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug
Act it was advertised in the following terms:

BEST SPRING TONIC.

DOCTORS OF ALL SCHOOLS AGREE THAT
THE BEST TONIC-STIMULANT TO BUILD UP
THE SYSTEM, RUN DOWN AND WEAKENED
BY THE LONG STRAIN OF WINTER, AND TO
DRIVE OUT SPRING FEVER AND MALARIA IS
’S MALT WHISKEY.

As a tonic and stimulant it is the greatest strength-giver
known to science. It destroys disease germs and by its
building and healing properties restores tissues in a gradual,
healthy, natural manner. It is a wonderful specific in the
treatment and cure of consumption, pneumonia, grippe,
bronchitis, coughs, colds, malaria, low fevers, stomach
troubles, and all wasting, weakened, diseased conditions, if
taken in time.

It is recognized as the world’s leading medicine every-
where.

By a decision of the Supreme Court of the State of
New York this “pure” malt whiskey has been declared a
liquor. It is simply a sweetened whisky. To advertise
it as a CURE for consumption or as a cure for any dis-
ease was malicious, and should be punishable by a long
term in prison. It would be possible to take every state-
ment of the above advertisement and prove each one to
be false.

This “pure” malt whiskey is a favorite “booze” of so-
called temperance people. Since it .is advertised as a
medicine, they can get drunk from its use and still be
“temperance” advocates. One of the favorite methods, of
advertising the product was to draw the public’s attention
to the fact that

CLERGYMEN ENDORSE
MALT WHISKY

DISTINGUISHED DIVINES AND TEMPERANCE
WORKERS WHO HAVE spent their lives in uplifting
their fallen brethren and placing their feet upon the solid
rock use and recommend s pure malt whisky. Hon-

ored and respected preachers of the gospel and advocates
of temperance, without regard to creed or prejudice, make

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

479

frank and outspoken statements of what ’s pure malt

whisky has done for them.

Then follow the testimonials and the photographs of
three aged and inert-looking preachers.

It made an impressive advertisement, as most nostrum
“ads” are, because, unfortunately, the art of the liar is
best expressed in the superlative degree. His word-pic-
tures are therefore more lurid, more diversified, more
romantic. But when they are investigated and the facts
brought to light the advertisement falls to pieces. For
example, compare the actual facts relative to the three
“distinguished divines’’ with the fiction in the following
advertisement :

The Rev. D , over 82 years of age, practised medi-

cine for many years, when he moved west. He became a min-
ister and did preach for ten years in the State of Wyoming.
He then retired from the pulpit and opened a marriage bureau.
He received $10.00 when he gave his testimonial “to get his
picture taken.”

The Rev. H occupied the pulpit of the Church of

Eternal Hope of B , Pa. He retired to enter politics a num-

ber of years ago, and is now a deputy Internal Revenue collector.
He is a spiritualist. He owned race horses and was a patron
of the turf.

The Rev. McL- — lived in G , Mich. There are 893 peo-

ple in the township and it is not even on the railroad line. Mr.

McL was allowed to resign from the fellowship after being

called to trial for endorsing ’s pure malt whisky.

If these three gentlemen were brought on the stage
of any city vaudeville theater and introduced as distin-
guished divines it would be regarded as a joke — which
it really is. If we relegate our “distinguished divines”
to marriage bureaus, or the race track, or to the Inter-
nal Revenue service, or to preach to flocks in townships
of less than one thousand and not on the railroad, the
outlook for the ministerial profession is far from en-
couraging. To tell us that these men spent their lives
‘in uplifting their fallen brethren” is imposing upon the
good nature of one’s audience. It is simply one more
evidence added to the long list already noted that one
does not readily accquire the habit of expecting to read
the truth in a patent medicine advertisement. Rather

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the reverse. We examine them in expectant curiosity
to note their unique and devilish ability to tell picturesque
falsehoods.

Certain famous pills are advertised extensively in
Great Britain and in the United States. It is claimed
by the manufacturers that they are “composed entirely of
medicinal herbs” and that they will “cure” constipation,
pains in the back, cold chills, bad legs, maladies of in-
discretion, kidney and urinary disorders — and several
other things.

These pills were analyzed by the British Medical As-
sociation’s chemists, who reported that they consisted of
ginger, soap, and aloes. Where the “medicinal herbs
were it was hard to say.

In large and lurid letters we are informed in the ad-
vertisements that these pills are “worth a guinea ($5.00)
a box.” The retail price is 27 cents a box. The British
Medical Association’s chemist states that the cost of
these pills is one-quarter of a cent per box. Quite a
fair margin of profit considering the high cost of living
these days!

CHAPTER XXXII

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL— Continued

How Patent Medicine Firms and Quacks Dispose of the
Confidential Letters Sent to Them — Patent Medicine
Concerns and Letter Brokers — -The Patent Medicine
Conspiracy Against the Freedom of the Press — How
The Patent Medicine Trust Crushes Honest Effort.

HOW QUACKS DISPOSE OF THE CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS SENT TO THEM

When you write for information — which is usually the
first step — in reply to an advertisement of this character,
you receive in reply a letter, which addresses you in an
intimate way, as, “Dear or Esteemed Friend.” It in-
forms you that “we are devoting our lives in the in-
terest of suffering humanity,” and requests you to waste
no time in writing a full account of your symptoms
and sickness ; that such information will be sacredly re-
garded as confidential and filed away from the prying
eyes of everyone except the “doctor” who reads it.

Every art is used to give the writer the impression that
she is doing business with responsible and reputable
people ; that what she writes about her health, her af-
fairs, and her person, are to be read by an experienced
medical adviser and by no other. The truth, as we have
shown, is that she writes her secrets to a man, who is
not even a physician, who in turn passes the letter over
to be answered by an office clerk.

When the fake doctor, or the patent medicine man,
has exhausted his “jollying” tactics, his lies, and his
promises, and he can no longer induce the victim to
send more money, he sells the victim’s letters to another
quack in the same business. These harpies, knowing
what ails the individual, begin sending her their specious
and insinuating literature. The woman reads, becomes
interested, and, having bitten before, concludes to try

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482

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

once again, and so the story goes — one after another
trying to drain the life-blood of an ailing, irresponsible,
foolish woman.

The selling of letters has become a business, so much
so that there are regularly established medical letter
brokers from whom you can buy these letters by the
thousands. In a single medical letter broker s office in
New York City there are upwards of seven million of
these confidential letters for sale to the highest bid-
ders. This incidentally gives one a slight idea of the
tremendous business this is, and of the hundreds of
thousands of dupes and victims there have been.

The following extracts are taken from a well-known
woman’s journal, which at various times has been in-
terested in this subject, and are of special interest in this
connection :

One of the most disgusting and disgraceful features of the
patent medicine business is the marketing of letters sent by
patients to patent medicine firms. Correspondence is
solicited by these firms under the seal of sacred confidence.
When the concern is unable to do further business with a
patient it disposes of the patient’s correspondence to a letter
broker, who, in turn, disposes of it to other patent medicine
concerns at the rate of half a cent for each letter.

One of these brokers assured the writer that he could
give me “choice lots” of “medical female letters.” . . . Let
me now give you, from the printed lists of ^ these letter
brokers, some idea of the way in which these “sacred confi-
dential” letters are hawked about the country. Here are a
few samples, all that are really printable:

55.000 “Female Complaint Letters” is the sum total of
one item, and the list gives the names of the “medicine
company” or the “medical institute” to whom they were
addressed. Here is a barter then, in 55,000 letters of a pri-
vate nature, each one of which, the writer was told, and
had a right to expect, would be regarded as “sacredly
confidential” by the doctor or concern to whom she had
been deluded into telling her private ailments. Yet here
they are for half a cent each!

Another batch of some 47,000 letters addressed to five
“doctors” and “institutes” is emphasized because they were
written by women! A third batch is:

44.000 “Bust Developer Letters,” — letters which one man
in a’ patent medicine concern told me were “the richest sort
of reading you could get hold of.”

A still further lot offers: 40,000 “Women’s Regulator Let-

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

483

ters,” — letters which in their context any woman can
naturally imagine would be of the most delicate nature.
Still, the fact remains, here they are for sale.

Is not this contemptible?

In the same article is exposed the inhuman greed of patent
medicine concerns that turn into cold cash the letters of
patients afflicted with the most vital diseases.

To quote again: “All these are made the subject of public
barter. Here are offered for sale, for example: 7,000

Paralysis Letters; 9,000 Narcotic Letters; 52,000 Consump-
tion Letters; 3,000 Cancer Letters, and even 65,000 Deaf Let-
ters. Of diseases of the most private nature one is offered
here nearly 100,000 letters, — letters the very classification of
which makes a sensitive person shudder.”

The deeper one delves below the surface of this busi-
ness the nastier it gets. It is impossible to conceive of
vipers and sharks being endowed with more contemptible
and brutish qualities than those which characterize the
vultures of the patent medicine and quack medical com
cerns.

THE PATENT MEDICINE CONSPIRACY AGAINST
THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

It is estimated that the newspapers of the United
States get about $100,000,000 per year from the adver-
tisements of patent medicines and fake medical con-
cerns.

There is an association composed of the manufacturers
of patent medicines and the owners of advertising medi-
cal concerns. It was primarily formed for the single
purpose of strictly looking after the “interests” of those
concerned.

If we concede, as we must concede if we study the
facts, the whole medical advertising business to be dis-
reputable, dishonorable and unjust, in that it is detri-
mental to the health and welfare of the race, the only
protection it could possibly need would be protection
against any movement which had for its object the in-
terest of the people who are its victims. This is exactly
the key to the workings of the P. A. of America. When
one begins to know something about the patent medicine
evil, his sense of justice immediately asks why “some-

484

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

thing” has not been done to crush it. When the reader
understands more about this octopus, he will learn that
its tentacles are far-reaching and that it has a mysterious
and efficient way of crushing in its incipiency any embryo
movement directed against it. It would be a long story
to give the facts in detail— they are all a matter of record
— the easiest way to explain the procedure is to give an
illustration of how the machinery is worked.

Let us suppose a Congressman conceives the idea of
introducing a bill in Congress to compel newspapers to
refuse advertising matter that is obviously false and that
misrepresents facts, and cites, as an example, a patent
medicine advertisement. The agent or lobbyist of the
association in Washington immediately telegraphs the
intent of the bill with the name of its author to the
home office of the association. The gentleman in charge
of the executive department of the home office looks up
the facts regarding the political connections of the. Con-
gressman, wires to the papers published in his district
suggesting to them the advisability of using their in-
fluence to change the Congressman s opinion. The news-
papers do as they are bid (though there are a few who
have refused to do this kind of work, but only a few) ;
they may intimate to him that he is committing political
suicide, or they may adopt other tactics. The result,
however, is that the representative usually sees the point
and permits his bill to die in committee. The quacks
are not satisfied with this single effort to ensure the
death of the bill. The matter is taken up with other
Congressmen through their home papers ; the whole ma-
chinery of the system is set in motion. Their atten-
tion is called to the bill. They are told that the public
does not demand such legislation, and that, if Ibis bi
passes, it will deprive of many thousands of dollars for
advertising the papers which are friendly toward the po-
litical future of the particular Congressman in question.
The facts are thus brought to the attention of many
Congressmen. They see the point also. It suggests to
them that they will do well not to trample on this mon-
ster or they may suffer themselves. Thus are the people
deprived of what might have been a great step forward

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

485

in the fight for pure food and drugs and, incidentally, in
the preservation of the public health.

One may pertinently ask why the newspapers lend
themselves to such infamous and dishonorable dealings.
The answer is that, inasmuch as they derive a very large
part of their total income from patent medicine adver-
tisements and as these advertisements are contracted for
under certain conditions, it can readily be seen that they
are made a party to crushing legislation which would
interfere with the patent medicine business.

It is agreed in case any law or laws are enacted, either
State or national, harmful to the interest of the Com-

pany, that this contract may be cancelled by them. from date
of such enactment, and the insertions made paid for pro
rata with the contract price.

There is another feature of the contract that is of
the utmost significance and importance to the mothers
of the race. It is the only instance we know of which
effectually muzzles the public press. This part of the
contract reads as follows:

It is agreed that the Company may cancel this con-

tract, ... in case any matter otherwise detrimental to the
Company’s interest is permitted to appear in the read-
ing columns or elsewhere in the paper.

This means that the newspapers bind themselves, un-
der contract, not to print any matter in their reading
columns which would be detrimental to the interests of
the patent medicine manufacturers. Under the same
stipulation they cannot even accept matter to be paid for,
if it in any way reflects upon the patent medicine busi-
ness. In other words, the sovereign people, whose serv-
ant the public press should be, is, under this contract,
deprived of its rights of representation in the columns
of the daily newspapers.

The grave significance of this condition of afifairs will
be adequately appreciated when it is remembered that
every popular movement to right public wrongs must
have the fullest publicity or the effort is doomed to fail-
ure. The patent medicine business has been shown to

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THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

be a monstrously evil institution, yet every effort to enlist
the public press in an effort to arouse the necessary degree
of indignation which precedes every public demand for
the righting of a wrong has failed, because, “it is agreed

that the Company may cancel this contract in case

any matter otherwise detrimental to the Company’s

interest is permitted to appear in the reading columns or
elsewhere in the paper.”

There is another feature of this ugly business which
is of the deepest interest to women. The patent medi-
cine territory is the whole country. It is a large, profit-
able field. A movement was once started by certain
reputable New York physicians, who were deeply in-
terested in this question, to discover a means to aid the
class who buy patent medicines and support the fake
medical concerns. It was thought that if an advertising
propaganda was instituted, offering to give legitimate
and adequate medical advice, at the lowest possible cost,
there would be many who would avail themselves of the
opportunity. The following advertisement was prepared
and given out for publication, with the result that it
could not be advantageously placed :

RELIABLE MEDICAL ADVICE.

Government investigation of the PATENT MEDICINE
BUSINESS and of the advertised MEDICAL CURE CON-
CERNS, has demonstrated that they are worthless and
dangerous; that they are money making schemes only, and
that they acquire business by misrepresentation, by falsehood,
and by fraudulent testimonials. Most of these concerns are
owned by men with no medical education or experience.

These are facts attested to by the highest authorities in
the United States, and apply to every advertised remedy
and to every system of advertised treatment in the news-
papers to-day with no exception that has come to our
knowledge.

A BUREAU OF PHYSICIANS, each in good standing
and in active private practice, has been established in NEW
YORK CITY, to extend advice to those requiring medical
assistance.

The object of the bureau is to prevent patients from plac-
ing themselves in the hands of incompetent, expensive and
fraudulent schemers. The character of the advice furnished

the patent medicine evil

487

will be exactly the same as if you visited the office of any up-
to-date reputable city consultant. We will simply direct what
should be done in each instance to effect relief of the dis-
eased conditions.

The charges will be the ordinary fees charged by reputable
physicians anywhere for similar services, and will in no in-
stance be unreasonable or excessive.

We invite the correspondence of those in need of honest
advice. Ask for information which will be sent free of
charge.

Here was a tremendously lucrative field in which
there was every possibility of doing a large amount of
genuine good, which, however, could not be reached
by men whose only object was to benefit the people, be-
cause the public press did not dare publish anything detri-
mental to ‘‘the combine’’ If this isn’t monopoly, what
is it?

This is not the only instance of this kind that has
taken place. One independently wealthy gentleman, for
certain business reasons of his own, conceived the idea
of inserting a trustworthy article exposing the patent
medicine combine in the newspapers of the country, for
which he was, of course, willing to pay the usual ad-
vertising rates. He gave the contract to a large adver-
tising concern which began the crusade in Texas, the
intention being to cover the country working the States
one after the other. What was the result? As soon
as the system’s attention was directed to the plan the
mandate of “silence” was flashed to the newspapers and
the propaganda died an unnatural death in Texas, whose
borders it never crossed. The columns of the public
press were tightly closed to it.

Is it any wonder that it has been so difficult to pass
a Public Health bill? I am hopeful, however, that the
women will solve this problem. It would seem to be a
subject in which they could become strenuously and
eagerly interested. Women as voting factors, or as
legislators, will never succeed in the subtle fights of ward
politics, or in the coarser slugging battles of graft and
patronage, but in the moral finesse, necessary to achieve
success in public health and purity legislation they should
prove to be enthusiasts. If the regeneration of the race

'488

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

is entangled in legislative procedure or political subtilties,
its only salvation is to find emancipators whose heart
strings are of finer and truer fiber than those in the breasts
of men. We hope to find them in the mothers of
the race.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL — Continued

The Patent Medicine Evil and the Duty of the Mothers of
the Race — “Blood-Money” — The People Must be the
Reformers — Mothers’ Resolutions.

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL AND THE DUTY OF
THE MOTHERS OF THE RACE

It may be emphatically asserted that the patent medicine
evil and the fraudulent medical cure more directly con-
cern the mothers of the race than any others. No matter
who the ailing victim may be, some woman is deeply and
sincerely interested in his, or her, recovery and welfare.
If the proper influence is exerted at the right time, and
if it is based upon adequate knowledge of the danger in-
volved, it is certain that the sufferer will not become a
victim of the fraudulent and dangerous advertised
nostrum, or a fake medical course of treatment. If each
mother, therefore, possessed an adequate knowledge of
the patent medicine evil, and exerted the influence which
would naturally result from the possession of such knowl-
edge, we should soon see the end of the whole business.

Most people are honest and sincere. It is difficult, how-
ever, to arouse the majority to concerted and sustained
action. If the honest and well-intentioned element in
society could be influenced to a sustained effort to correct
existing evils, in any department of human effort, the
fraudulent and dishonest members of society could be ef-
fectually rendered harmless. If the suggestion which I
have advanced in the article on Eugenics, to form Eugenic
Clubs in every community, should be adopted, the mem-
bers could, in a definite way, contribute to the propaganda,
by insisting that the members of the legislature and
Congress inform themselves upon these subjects, and act
and vote in accordance with the sentiment of their con-
stituents. It is only by some such systematized, concerted

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THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

effort that any hope may be reasonably entertained that
this question will be satisfactorily and finally solved.
That it is capable of being solved satisfactorily there is
no doubt whatever. It depends upon the women.

The passage of The Pure Food and Drugs Act, caused,
for a brief period, a cessation of the strenuous activity
which had previously characterized the patent medicine
business. It was not, however, to be expected that any
single legislative act would permanently strangle such a
parasite, — for we must remember that it is an easy and a
highly remunerative calling. Nor was it to be expected
that men who are adepts in sophistry and experts in quib-
bling could not find a way to circumvent the intent of the
law.

This was proved to be so because they are again be-
ginning to advertise more freely and with more assurance.
One of the best known has assumed a new advertising
garb. Its new diction is specious and clever, but it is a
satanic cleverness when its history is weighed in the
balance. It is quite probable that its formula may have
been slightly changed, but at the end of each advertise-
ment the following suggestive paragraph appears:

“SPECIAL NOTICE — Many persons are making inquiries
for the old-time . To such would say, that this for-
mula is now put out under the name of , manufactured

by Company, C , Ohio. Write them and they

will be pleased to send you a free booklet.”

The old time was condemned by the United

States Government as an intoxicant and stimulant, and
cures were sold in various parts of the country for the

“jag,” yet in the new advertisement the following

appears :

“ is a remedy that should be kept in the house. Its

virtue as a preventive to disease is the thing I wish chiefly
to emphasize.

‘When once the value of as a household remedy

is understood no home would be without it. Cathartics,
pills and powders would be discarded. Irritating tonics
would be no longer taken. ALCOHOLIC DRINKS
WOULD HAVE NO PLACE . . ”

If “alcoholic drinks would have no place” in the house-

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

491

hold why should one want this remedy, which has no
medical value except as a stimulant? It is as if a drunken
man should deliver a temperance lecture: it would really
be funny if we did not know the tragedies that have gone
before as a result of its use. That is an example of tie
type of argument which must be legislated against.

There are two specific points in this crusade against t e
patent medicine fraud which should be the objective is-
sues of all concerted effort to crush the evil. These could
be taken up by mothers in their eugenic clubs ancl de-
veloped until successfully legislated upon. It. would be
the greatest immediate contribution to constructive legisla-
tion that women’s suffrage could bestow upon the race.

First to enact a law which would make it a felony tor
a newspaper to print a fraudulent patent, medicine ad-
vertisement, or a fake medical cure. A national board. of
competent authority should be constituted to determine

the question of fraud. . , . ,

Second, to amend the law which permits the registra-
tion of a fancy name for a combination of drugs, without

at the same time giving the formula. .... ,

The mothers of the race must recognize that .it is not
only a question of economy, but a vital issue in ea t
preservation, to regard all advertised remedies an
medical “cures” as absolutely dangerous and worthless,
and consequently not to be used at all. There is no safe
exception to this rule. The records teem with evidence
condemning the whole discreditable business. Almost
without exception, every advertised remedy and cure has
been, when actually investigated, found fraudulent and
worthless. The great majority of these concerns are
owned and run by individuals, who have had no medical
experience, and no training to fit them to advise patients
in any sense. It is a money-making scheme pure and
simple, and anyone who asks further proof is not open

to conviction. .

I believe the trutlifuT and the just interpretation of the
success of the patent medicine business is to be. found in
the ignorance of the people, — not the kind of ignorance
that reflects upon their intelligence, but real, honest ignor-
ance regarding the true character and merit of the patent

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THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

medicine business. It would be an unwarranted reflection
upon the intelligence and acumen of the American people
to assert that they would wittingly support a fraudulent
proposition, especially a proposition whose success meant
their own physical degeneration. The reflection is rather
an indictment of the inefficiency of those in authority.

We must not deny that there exists in the minds of the
lowly a feeling that what is printed is true. This is as it
should be; it is an instinct and it is fundamental. We
must remember, too, that there are thousands and
thousands of homes, into which absolutely no literature
of any kind ever penetrates except the weekly, and it
may be stray copies of the daily newspaper. These people
are primitive and credulous. They have ailing members
in the family, and they have not always accessible medical
service, or they may be too poor to avail themselves of
such service as exists. When, therefore, they see glaring
promises of relief and “cures” for whatever may ail them,
in the oft-read paper, week after week, it is an easy step
to become enrolled as a victim. These people believe in
their newspaper. They have no reason to question the
truth of its contents. They unconsciously put their trust
and dependence upon those in authority, those who should
see to it that the instinct of truth and honesty is reflected
in the justice and protection which is meted out to the
helpless and the poor. Is it any wonder, therefore, that
we have victims, when the only voice that comes to them
from the great world beyond is a tissue of false promises
and fraudulent pretensions? The law is a cumbersome
vehicle to move. It cannot be driven by inspiration — no
matter how crucial the incentive may be that creates the
inspiration, — it moves only by the potential force of a
great conviction, the voice of the people. It seems a pity
to waste time in the education of all the people before
their voice shall be raised to demand protection, when the
authorities know now of the wrong that is being per-
petrated and could right it without the waste of this
precious time.

Since we cannot hope for legislative assistance until
the people are aroused to demand it, every mother who
has an opportunity to learn the truth about the matter.

493

THE PATENT MEDICINE EVIL

must become a member of the propaganda of education
and must spread the knowledge to others. We must
educate the army of innocents who fall because they do
not know the truth, and we must reach that vaster army,
whose gullibility permits these frauds to flourish. We
must show them the false foundation and the hollow
pretense upon which such schemes are founded. . We
must show them that each detail of the business is in-
spired by a wrong motive; that the so-called personal
letters even are printed by the hundreds of thousands,
and filled in to appear as personal communications by
office clerks who possess absolutely no medical knowl-
edge ; that the “diagnosis” blanks are worthless and fre-
quently dangerous, and simply sent to the prospective
victim to impress him and draw him on ; that the medicine
furnished, is, as a rule, made of the cheapest of drugs,
bought in large quantities from parties, whose reputation
in the drug trade is not of the best; that the medicine
has no special potency nor value, that it is in all likelihood
a worthless mixture, which in the advertisements is given
false and lying properties ; that when they have got all
the money out of the victim possible they will sell his
letters to other nostrum venders. It is a sorry reflection
on our civilization that the sick, often the incurably ill,
cannot be protected against their own credulity, and the
devices of those who would fatten on their misfortune
and profit by their sufferings.

If every mother who reads this article would quietly
think the matter over and reach a definite conclusion as to
just how she may contribute her share to the educational
crusade to crush the patent medicine monster, I am certain
it would not be long before we would begin to feel that
there were the “mutterings of a storm brewing.” If each
mother would subscribe to the following resolution, and
obey it, she would really be an agency for much good in
her community :

I resolve never to advise an ailing friend or acquaintance
to purchase or use an advertised remedy or “cure” of any
kind whatsoever; nor will I permit any other person to
advise the use of such remedies or “cures” without, in a
friendly way, protesting, and thereby converting this per-
son, who undoubtedly is ignorant of the facts.

494

THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE

I further resolve, always to advise an ailing friend to con-
sult someone, whose education and experience qualifies him
to give competent advice.

I would suggest that the above resolution be printed on
cards in the form of a motto, to be hung on the wall, and
distributed from house to house by the eugenic clubs.
At the bottom of the card, the word “over” should be
clearly printed. On the reverse side, in ordinary reading
type should be a condensed and efficient argument against
the use of patent medicines. This argument should be
complete and convincing in itself, so that one who may
casually ask what the card means may be told to read
what is on the back of the card, and may, thereby, be
convinced that “it is a good idea.” This would be an in-
expensive way of exciting the curiosity of the community,
and when the psychological moment arrives it would
probably be possible for one of the members of the club to
give an address or lecture on the patent medicine evil.
Inasmuch as the curiosity and the sympathy of the
audience would be with the speaker, it would only be
necessary to state facts to make converts. It seems worth
trying, and the suggestion is given with the hope that the
women in every community who are capable (and there
are capable leaders in every community) will take this
club idea up and develop it far beyond the largest hopes
which I conceive for them.

If engenics means anything, and if the women are
what they claim, much will be accomplished by each doing
her part intelligently, and by each community standing
upon its own record.

t

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